


Avatar: Twin Souls, Book One: Fire and Water

by LunartheDragon



Series: Avatar: Twin Souls [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: 80's 90's aesthetic, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avatar After Korra, Bending (Avatar), Dark Avatar, Earth Avatar, Multi, Order of the White Lotus, Republic City, Spirits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 29,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29707641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunartheDragon/pseuds/LunartheDragon
Summary: The first cycle of Avatars has come to a close with the passing of Avatar Korra. She ushered in a brand new age of light, prosperity, and peace. But these can only be realized with selfless guidance, patience, and a new way of thinking.Avatar Aigo, the first of the new cycle, has only himself and the White Lotus to lean on, but the reality he has been fed his whole life is not as perfect as he once believed.Veda, having been born both in the lower class, Breeze community and as the Dark Avatar, has seen the cruelty of this world firsthand. Cynical but still righteous, she strives to better the world for her people no matter the cost.Light and Shadows must coalesce and work together in harmony to lead the world forward into equality, battling supremacists, corrupt leaders, and an organization fallen from grace.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Series: Avatar: Twin Souls [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2183238
Kudos: 3





	1. The New Era

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Avatar: Twin Souls!  
> Betaread by the lovely [Anna-Akai!](https://twitter.com/dotted_lady)
> 
> Quick notes: -This has a very fun 80's/90's theme  
> -As stated by the creators this is the new Avatar of the new cycle and actually has no connection to Korra, as her connection was severed both to past AND future lives.  
> -I want to include a lot of cultural representation Bryke missed out on, so drop by my [discord](https://discord.gg/vBqpy5ZUyM) if you have the chance! I am also eager to talk to people and make new friends, so drop by if you wanna!
> 
> Anyway! I hope you enjoy my story!

Fire.

Air.

Water.

Earth.

These four elements encompass the Avatar Cycle. They are the basis for which every Avatar holds their power. But it is not through these powers that Avatars find greatness.

No, it is through our own spirit and strength. Before, the Avatar could speak to past lives to gather wisdom, to learn lessons, and to grow as individuals rather than vessels of a mighty spirit. But this is no longer the case.

I, Avatar Korra, was struck down in my battle against the Dark Avatar Unalaq. My uncle. The connection to the Avatar’s past lives was lost by Unalaq and Vaatu’s cruelty. While I bested them and reclaimed Raava’s spirit, I could never regain the connection to the past Avatars.

No… I became the final Avatar of that cycle. And you, whoever is reading this, will be the first of a new cycle. You will be born without any past lives to rely on, not even myself, but that does not make you weak. You will be the beginning of a new era. You will still hold the power of the Great Light Spirit Raava within you. You will still control all four elements. You will still stand as an ambassador for spirits and humankind.

Most importantly, though, is you will have your own, inner power, for that is what makes any Avatar who they are. Not the title. Not the bending. You.

And I believe in you.

[][][][]

The air is humid as the White Lotus craft glides across the water and into Republic City harbour. The wind is cool, however, and eases the warm discomfort from Aigo’s skin. He had grown up in the Earth Kingdom for most his life, but after staying at the North Pole for the last few weeks he grew accustomed to the cold and dry.

Nonetheless, it was always good to be back.

“We’ll be docking soon, Avatar Aigo,” comes a voice behind him and Aigo pushes off the railing to turn around. A man in White Lotus garb, sans the helmet, stands there. His posture is relaxed, unlike some of the other White Lotus grunts milling around.

Aigo can’t help but grin back at the man. “Thanks, Qiu. I’ll go grab my stuff in a second,” Aigo nods, but Qiu doesn’t walk away. They’re both about the same age, but Aigo had just turned nineteen while Qiu still had two more months to go. 

They had different builds, too. Despite being born an earthbender, Aigo had never bulked up like he’d hoped he would. Instead, he was fit, yes, and tall, but not ripped like Qiu was. They were both pale with dark hair, but where Qiu’s was short, scraggly, and a hint brown, Aigo’s was inky black and long, pulled into a low ponytail. Their eyes were similar, both green, but Aigo’s were paler while Qiu’s were rich.

“What’s got you upset, then?” Qiu questions, crossing his arms and eying Aigo up and down. It makes the Avatar blink owlishly before shaking his head out and properly gawking at the other boy.

“What? I’m not upset! I’m perfectly fine! Not upset at all. Totally calm and collected. Completely at peace with myself and the world and-- How’d you know I was upset?” Aigo’s rambling quickly putters out with Qiu’s constant, judgemental gaze upon him.

The bulkier boy shifts his arms and points at the folded sheet of paper currently in Aigo’s grasp, one of his thick eyebrows arching. “You only ever pull out one of Avatar Korra’s letters when you feel sorry for yourself,” Qiu explains simply and Aigo’s shoulders sag, dejected and found out.

“Am I truly so predictable?” Aigo mumbles, glancing out at the waves as the vessel glides over.

“Pretty much,” Qiu half-shrugs and Aigo sags a bit more.

“Ouch…” the Avatar mumbles, chuckling to himself humorlessly.

“Stop avoiding the question,” Qiu reaches out and punches the shorter boy’s shoulder, familiarity in his actions. “What’s up with you?”

Aigo sighs, his chest puffing up with the slow, procrastinating action, eyes still sideways towards the waves. “Korra’s letters always make me feel… a little more sure of myself. She left so many to try and make up for a lack of past lives - as if that was actually her fault - and all of them are so positive… Reading them makes me feel like a little less of a failure.”

Qiu’s arms have crossed, his head tilted as he listens intently to Aigo’s explanation and his expression pinched. “Is this about the waterbending thing?” the White Lotus agent questions, tone carefully neutral, but it still makes Aigo’s lips thin unhappily.

“I get that every Avatar has an element they struggle with,” Aigo begins slowly, subconsciously pulling his low ponytail across one shoulder and carding his fingers through it, “but there’s a lot more expectations for me, you know? Avatar Aigo of the New Era! Representative of a Period of Light! The Example for All the New Avatars to Come! Blah blah blah blah blah!”

“Plus, you’re taking even longer than most to figure out your problem-element,” Qiu hums, scratching his cheek and the slight stubble there.

“Dude… not helping,” Aigo whines, sagging so far he leans against the railing, his arms crossed and head hanging between his shoulders.

The White Lotus had worked so hard to find him a waterbending master; first in the South Pole, and then most recently in the North. Malik and Tessouat respectively. 

Both had been massive failures.

He had travelled all around the world learning the elements, aided by the White Lotus to find suitable masters and assure Aigo’s travels were safe in his early years.

And Aigo owed the organization so much. 

Certainly, they’d made mistakes. It had been Avatar Korra who had made the White Lotus swear never to lock up another Avatar again like they had her, which had left her worldly views and understandings crippled. Plus the White Lotus used to have a nasty habit of keeping massive secrets to themselves like they could solve them alone, but it was so much better now. They admitted to their mistakes and they strove to be better!

And now Aigo couldn’t even complete his training properly for them. He was failing the organization that had raised him, as well as the world that was waiting for the Avatar to guide them into prosperity.

Thankfully, he hadn’t been needed for any world-ending catastrophes like his predecessors had in their early years. The world wasn’t perfect - during his travels he’d had to help out plenty of struggling people or take down extremist wannabes - but this was a time of peace. This new era was an era of light, just as it was meant to be.

But the Avatar would always be needed, and Aigo needed to show the world that the new cycle was one to be trusted, just as the previous had. 

First, though, he needed to master water, and he didn’t see that happening anytime soon.

The boat was slowing by the time Aigo straightened up again, shaking out the dejected feeling in his bones. He’d had the whole ship ride back to Republic City to feel bad for himself, and now it was time to jump back into his duties.

Qiu patted his back reassuringly, the best he could probably offer, before slipping his White Lotus helmet back on and hurrying off to get back to his duties. The docks were in sight, the long, pristine, stone piers of the higher sector docks reaching out towards them. Along the shore to Aigo’s right were the commercial docks, wooden but more numerous, and Aigo could hear the sound of fisherman boats, merchants, and workers going about the day. They were too far away to catch a waft of the stench of fish - the fishermen were downwind - but Aigo can imagine it.

The Poles always had a slight fishy smell to it.

Aigo takes one more moment to enjoy the feel of the cool wind against his humidity heated face before turning to head back to his cabin and retrieve his things. He doesn’t want to get in anyone’s way once they’ve docked and need to get supplies moved around.

He doesn’t get far, however, when the burst of voices down the docks stops him. The noise is far off, but coming closer from the commercial docks, a deep-voiced man shrieking, “Stop! Stop that thief!” Aigo’s eyes narrow and he hurries to the starboard bow’s railing, leaning forward to get a better view and listen.

There’s definitely a commotion going on and, a moment later, someone is sprinting down the wharf, a cluster of working force men and women behind them, but they are moving far too fast. A cloud of dust is kicked up by the “thief’s” sprinting and it doesn’t take a genius for Aigo to recognize airbending.

Well, small ordeal as it seemed, an Avatar had a duty to the people.

The White Lotus vessel is close enough to the docks by now that Aigo only needs to back up a few steps, and then leap forward. A burst of air beneath his feet has him airborne and rocketing forward, a grin spreading on his face at the feel of weightlessness as he glides.

Another, smaller burst of air cushions his landing and then he’s off, sprinting after the thief. With a boost of earth, Aigo hops over the gates that separate the White Lotus docks, eyes trained on the form of the airbender as they slide, skid, and avoid the workers they’d stolen from. When they’re close enough to one of the harbor stations, their air is lifting them up in a running leap, feet catching on a sign post, then a window sill, and the gutter as they air step up the wall.

Aigo is a few steps ahead of them, however, and he’s taking a single leap with an earthen boost before landing and rolling onto the station’s roof. The thief is scrambling to keep moving, the metal roof slick on their bare feet, but they falter when they see Aigo, grey eyes widening.

They’re young, maybe twelve or thirteen, and they’re tall and lanky. Their skin is dark, but Aigo can still see bruises on their elbows and knees. Their hair is short and scraggly, while their clothes are a basic grey shirt and jeans combo, if a bit more raggedy than usual, and around their hips a jean jacket is tied.

And in one of their hands they hold the tail ends of two, fresh trout.

Aigo raises both his eyebrows at the kid, making it clear he is looking between their face and the fish. He doesn’t quite frown, but it is clear his expression reads, “really?”

Below them Aigo hears the angry screams of the fishermen.

“Now, I’m just going to make a guess here and say you didn’t pay for those,” Aigo says conversationally, hands on his hips and feet braced on the metal roof. “Either that or you tipped way too much and that’s the weirdest ‘thank you’ I’ve ever seen.” The kid doesn’t reply, hardly even moves, but their eyes flick frantically around them, looking for an escape. Aigo doesn’t plan to give them one. It’s pretty clear this kid is in a bad way and needs help, but letting them steal won’t do anyone any good.

“Come on, dude, no need to get all buggy. I’m not going to hurt you, and I won’t let them, either,” Aigo smiles, a bit gentler now, and waves a hand in the general direction of the furious workers still on the ground. The Avatar takes a step forward, careful, like he’s approaching a wounded animal. “Look, I get it, you think this is your only option, the world can be scary, but you’ve got such a life ahead of you. You can’t be doing this kind of stuff.”

As Aigo inches closer the kid does take one step back, but otherwise stays still. They’re low to the ground, too, legs twisted in a way that Aigo doubts gives them much of an airbending advantage. They’re just scared. That’s all.

“Hey, come on. Why don’t you give back those fish and I get you in contact with somebody who can help? I know the White Lotus, see, and they have contacts that can--” Aigo hardly has a moment to react when the kid’s eyes widen and they’re swinging around. They pivot on a single foot, air propelling them like a top, while the other leg snaps out fast and hard with the spin.

The streak of air crashes down onto the side of Aigo’s head with so much power it knocks him to his knee.

And then the kid is trying to leap away in the new direction they’re facing, air shooting them forward like a bullet and they leap off the end of the roof…

And then a tentacle of water snaps up from below and nabs the thief out of thin air. The kid shrieks in surprise just before being dragged down and Aigo scrambles to his feet to hurry after them.

When he peers down at the ground he sighs in relief. The kid is unharmed, but detained in a cocoon of ice that is now stuck to the ground. Standing beside the thief is a familiar set of white and blue robes.

“Master Siqiniq!” Aigo says brightly before leaping down, air cushioning his fall as he grins at the White Lotus member. Siqiniq wasn’t a master waterbender, he was more of a strategist, but he was of master rank within the White Lotus’s hierarchy. Aigo had known Siqiniq ever since the White Lotus had found him and told him he was the Avatar. He was far from warm, but he’d helped raise Aigo and teach him about the world. 

Aigo wouldn’t be the man he was today without Siginiq’s guidance.

“What have you gotten yourself into now, Avatar Aigo?” Siqiniq questions with a shake of his head, though it feels a bit fond. The older man is tan like most native Water Tribesmen, face wrinkled with age, and long hair a dull grey under the White Lotus hood he hardly ever removes.

Behind Aigo comes the clatter of heavy footsteps and angry voices.

“Oi! You caught the thief!” cries a bulky man that must be the leader. He smells of ocean and seafood and one of his eyes is glassy. Aigo kind of wants to ask if he’s a pirate, except the man towers over him and looks like he could snap a man in half. Whoever this thief was, they had balls for stealing from a guy like this.

“Thief?” Siqiniq hums, looking back at the captured kid. They look terrified, squirming as best they can in their ice prison, but nothing they do matters. Siqiniq remains calm as he reaches to the ice, pushing in and letting it liquify around his hand. He nabs the fish, unfreezing them just enough to pull them back out but keep the thief stationary. “These are yours, then?”

“Damn straight, they is!” the fisherman bellows, stomping forward and snagging the two trout back. Behind him his crew - at least Aigo guesses they are his crew - deflate a little now that the chase is over. “This welp doesn’t know when to quit, does he?” the fisherman continues, scowling at the thief.

The thief, for his part, glares back, stopping his squirming just long enough to show what he thinks about the fisherman.

“This kid’s been an issue for you before?” Aigo asks, jutting his chin towards the captured boy. It would make sense, in a sad way. Crime was a steep, slippery slope, especially for the youth. Aigo just hoped they could get this kid some proper help before he truly ruined his life.

“You kiddin’?! He’s a Breeze Brat! Those bastards are born with sticky fingers, they is,” the fisherman scoffs, tossing his trout back to a crewmate before crossing his massive arms. “Don’t trust those cynical cretins one bit, and you shouldn’t either. Ain’t an honorable bone in their bodies.”

“Screw you!” the abrupt roar comes with a burst of wind that ruffles Aigo’s hair, but doesn’t do much more than that. The Avatar huffs, trying to right his ponytail and bangs as he looks back at the kid, surprised by the ferocity on his young face. “You don’t know anything about us! You only say that stuff ‘cause it makes you feel better about yourself!”

“Young man, that is quite enough,” Siqiniq snaps with a cold ferocity Aigo had never seen anyone match. It makes the thief’s lips pinch shut and avert his eyes sharply, seething. “I realize your family has likely told you very happy tales about your people to make you feel better, but to deny the Breeze community has no faults is ignorant.”

“That’s not--” the kid begins, but Siqiniq cuts him off.

“If you are old enough to steal, then you are old enough to listen to reality. The Breeze community shunned the Air Nomads and shunned the prosperity of the world, but then complained when that prosperity was not offered to them free of charge.”

The kid scowls deeply, looking older than he probably is, and Aigo tries to take pity on him, offering in a gentler voice, “Master Siqiniq can seem intense, I know, and I get you aren’t in a great place right now, but we should talk about  _ you _ and  _ your  _ future.”

The kid, thankfully, side eyes Aigo carefully. Definitely suspiciously, but the scowl was gone, so it was a start. “You’re a really good airbender. The Air Nomads are always happy and willing to take in Breezes into their communities.”

At that moment the fisherman spits loudly onto the ground and says, “Like any Breeze would ever go for that. They like being little heathens. Part of their DNF or whatever it’s called.”

“DNA, captain.”

“Ye, whatever. It’s a damn miracle if any Breeze is smart enough to take up the Nomad’s offer.”

Aigo, growing frustrated with the fisherman’s attitude, turns to shoot a forced grin over his shoulder. “Why don’t you head back to your produce? We can handle things from here. Avatar and White Lotus, y’know.”

The fisherman’s eyes narrow, not too pleased to be told off, even passive aggressively, but he only spits to the ground one more time before turning around and storming away, his crew in tow.

Aigo sighs, like a very obnoxious weight has been lifted from his shoulders, and turns back to smile at the kid. This kid, however, doesn’t look as pleased as the Avatar had thought he would.

“I’ll never be a Nomad,” the kid hisses, low and furious, his eyes narrowed and stormy. It's such a surprising expression that Aigo leans back, brows rising as the young thief glares at him. “They abandoned us. They’re the monsters, not us!”

“Projection is one of the many tools in a Breeze’s arsenal,” Siqiniq huffs sharply from the side as he steps forward. He doesn’t look too pleased, but he never actually does. He examines the boy for a long, silent moment, the boy glaring right back at him. Aigo, immediately feeling anxious, steps back to watch between the two, combing his fingers through his ponytail nervously.

Finally, like some great test has been finished, Siqiniq straightens and folds his hands behind his back. “Do you have a name, young man?” he questions. It would be hard to hear from someone who hadn’t known Siqiniq for years, but his tone was softer now. Just a tiny bit.

Clearly, if he  _ can _ tell, the kid doesn’t care about the tone. “Asha,” he snaps, harsher than Aigo thinks necessary for a name.

Then, however, Aigo watches as Siqiniq’s eyes narrow, clearly suspicious, and now Aigo can’t help but feel suspicious because… what did he miss? Had he even missed something? Or was Siqiniq just trying to scare this kid?

His master sighs, though, and shakes his head, glancing away for a moment as he mumbles, “Very well.” Then, with a rise of his hand upward, the ice melts back into a watery cocoon that he raises into the air. “We’ll get you squared away. Ty. Po. Come retrieve ‘Asha’ for me, will you?” From around a corner two more White Lotus members materialize, the opposite end the fisherman had left from, and they hurry over.

Aigo doesn’t know them, he could hardly keep up with every member in the organization, but he’s a little huffy that they’d been waiting nearby this whole time and couldn’t have come by to help. Namely with those loud fishermen. Whatever…

One of them raises their hands towards the thief, taking control of the watery cocoon and then walking back down the alley. It doesn’t take long, however, for the kid to begin thrashing again, shrieking at the agents and Siqiniq and Aigo. With a snap of their wrist, the second agent throws a strip of metal up to cover Asha’s mouth, silencing his cursing and screaming so they might get him where he needs to go in peace.

“Sad, isn’t it?” Siqiniq says, shaking his head as he turns away and begins to walk out of the alley in the opposite direction.

“P-pardon?” Aigo scrambles to turn around and catch up to his master, head still turning on occasion to look over his shoulder and back where Asha and the two White Lotus agents disappeared from.

“That they are given every opportunity to better themselves, yet never take it,” Siqiniq says without looking over. His eyes are glued forward, stride perfectly even, a drastic contrast to Aigo’s generally twitchy meandering. The Avatar had always been a curious boy, looking around, tripping, and generally adding far more movements than strictly necessary to everything he did.

“Breezes are a pretty proud people,” Aigo nods, looking up towards the rooftops, as if he’d see a random Breeze air hopping along them. There isn’t one.

Siqiniq snorts, sharp and quick, and it makes Aigo look back to him, brows furrowed. “The Breeze community is hardly a ‘people,’ Avatar Aigo. At best they are a hoard of hooligans. At worst they are terrorists, ready to disrupt our way of life. You saw what lies they teach their children, what that young man was spewing before.”

“Are we sure they are blatant lies, though? I mean, Breezes lack the education and growth to be too self aware. You said so before. They may just not fully comprehend what problems surround them,” Aigo offers, looking down to the ground.

The Breeze community was a complicated subject, he knew that. The descendants of airbenders who had refused to become Air Nomads after Harmonic Convergence. Airbenders who now disavowed everything Air Nomad, especially the work the monks did to help support the planet and its people.

Breezes were cynical and selfish, only wanting to take from this new age of light rather than offer anything back.

But perhaps it was out of ignorance? Aigo had never heard the idea posed during his travels. For the most part, people all agreed that the Breezes were bad news. They were remnants of a dark era that had never come to pass. If the new Air Nomads were the airbenders who had embraced the light, then it was the Breezes who had embraced the shadows.

But these were descendants, right? No longer the originals. Sure, Aigo had run into a few outlier groups in the past who had turned vicious and actively threatening, particularly to Nomads trying to offer aid, but every group had those bad apples. 

“You are continuously optimistic, Avatar Aigo, and I applaud you for that,” Siqiniq says and Aigo flinches, already sensing the ‘however’ coming on. “However,” there it is, “the Breezes are more cunning than you wish to believe. Did you hear the name that child gave us?”

“Oh, yeah. You looked kinda funny after he said his name was Asha. Why?” Aigo questions, confused and curious, giving Siqiniq his full attention.

“Asha is an alias. Breezes use it and teach their children to use it to make it more difficult to run them through the system. That young man knew precisely what he was doing,” Siqiniq replies with a sharp downturn of his mouth. He looked more displeased than usual, which had Aigo stiffening anxiously.

“And you saw how that young man moved and fought. You felt it, too,” Siqiniq continues, for a moment looking at Aigo from the corner of his eye, and the Avatar’s shoulders hitch up. A hand snaps up to rub at the side of his head where “Asha’s” surprise air attack had smacked him.

“You saw that, huh?” he mumbles, pale cheeks pinking with embarrassment.

Thankfully, Siqiniq doesn’t offer any comments further on Aigo’s performance - which is a rare blessing - and instead says, “The form he used. Did you recognize it?”

Aigo tilts his head in thought, considering. “The way he ran and jumped around reminded me of some of the kids I grew up with back on Earth Kingdom streets. Very proficient and impressive!”

“And designed to avoid authorities,” Siqiniq adds, reprimanding, and Aigo clears his throat.

“That too…”

“And the fighting?”

“No… No, I’d never seen that technique before. It was just one kick, though, so can I really make assumptions?” Aigo scratches the back of his neck, brows furrowing as he remembers the way the kid had spun on the ground, keeping everything so low, yet still managed fluidity, agility, and a kick that shot out high and precise.

And that air blast had  _ hurt _ .

“While a good mentality for battle, the truth is that the Breezes developed their own form of airbending,” Siqiniq says, turning and leading Aigo back towards the White Lotus ship the Avatar had come in on. Standing on the dock, at attention, is Qiu on duty. At his feet sit Aigo’s bags.

“That’s… impressive though! Teaching yourself bending is hard, and developing a new method is pretty amazing, right?” Aigo attempts for positive, but Siqiniq is more like a brick wall than a person. A brick wall on fire. Unwavering and terrifying.

“Impressive? Perhaps. Except their style is far more merciless and dangerous than proper airbending. Their lack of tradition has led to a threatening new style we know little about.”

Aigo glances away, eyes downcast. He wasn’t doing too good with this conversation. He kept gathering the wrong messages and he didn’t know how to discern the right ones.

One more failure in the books.

Siqiniq, finally taking some pity, sighs and stops as they near Qiu. “The world is far more balanced than it ever has been, but that does not mean it is perfect. There will always be people displeased with yours, and the White Lotus’s, work. You have much to learn, but for now…” Siqiniq reaches out and pats Aigo’s shoulder once, twice, three times, then pulls back his hand. “For now your responsibility is finishing your training. Qiu tells me you feel concerned over your most recent shortcomings.”

Aigo’s head snaps up, sharp and surprised, before he’s shooting an annoyed side-glare at Qiu. “Dude…” The White Lotus agent, however, makes no move, completely at attention now that he is on duty and a master is present. Aigo will get him back later…

“Avatar Aigo,” Siqiniq says, drawing Aigo’s attention back to him. “You have many responsibilities as the Avatar. You are the ambassador for human-spirit relations, you are peacekeeper, you are savior, you are messenger,” Aigo looks away and Siqiniq pauses, but only for a second. 

“I also realize you find yourself in an odd predicament for an Avatar, and I have seen how it weighs on your mind. I feel I must remind you - assure you - that while your situation is new to us, it is not entirely unique. Avatar Wan, ten thousand years ago, also fought without any past lives to secure peace. He also had no traditional forms to rely on, his bending raw and new.”

“So you’re saying I shouldn’t complain because it could be worse?” Aigo mumbles, head dipped down and away.

“I am saying you should be thankfully for the resources the Avatar now possesses, and forgive yourself your struggles. Your challenges, your goals, are that of Avatar Wan’s, but of a new age. You are not alone in experiences.”

Aigo sighs but forces himself to nod his head before going to gather up his possessions.

Right, he was like Wan. He had all the responsibilities and jobs, and he was basically charging in blind.

[][][][]

“Bento!! There’s my best buddy in the world!!” Aigo calls with his arms thrown wide, kicking up dirt as he sprints across the grassy field. Multiple sky bison meander around him but ignore him, while a single, flat head on a long neck pops up from the grass at the voice of the Avatar.

Bento the salamander cat scrambles up the moment she sees her owner, her massive paws sliding on the slick grass as chirps and clicks rapidly escape her mouth in excitement. Aigo is laughing loudly and brightly and doesn’t stop even as his oldest friend comes barreling into him and knocks him on his back.

Salamander cats were a rarity, even in their native Earth Kingdom home, namely due to poachers hunting them for pelts, skins, and claws. They were stalky creatures, a bit smaller than a komodo rhino, big enough to ride for sure, with widespread legs, a long salamander tail, a long neck, flat, triangular, rounded heads, two, long and pointed ears atop that head, and big, round eyes that Aigo could never tell if they were more cat-like or lizard-like.

Fur patterns could differ, mostly slick, short fur covering a salamander cat’s back, along the spine, the front legs and paws, and the neck, but it could spread and thicken in colder months.

Bento’s fur was a pretty, pure brown while her slick, amphibious skin was splotchy greens and blacks, and Aigo is quick to scratch his fingers through the puffy fur on Bento’s neck as the massive creature curls up on top of him and begins purring. The big gal’s heavy, but Aigo hardly cares. He’d missed his best friend.

“Awww, I missed you too, buddy! Yes I did! Yes I did! Did you miss me? I think you did!” Aigo’s baby talk matches the vigor of his scratches, Bento leaning towards his fingers but not getting off from her master. “I’m sorry I couldn’t take you, best girl, yes I am, but you wouldn’t do too good in the tundra! Nooo, it’s too cold there for salamander cats!”

“All the more reason to take her,” Aigo hears Qiu huff from somewhere behind him. The Avatar tilts his head back, the top of his head digging into grass and dirt, so he can look at Qiu upside down. The White Lotus agent has his helmet back off, Aigo’s baggage sent off with some other agents along the way, while Qiu was still required to escort Aigo to pick up his animal companion.

Well, technically Qiu hadn’t been required, but Aigo had insisted.

Because Qiu hated Bento.

Sweet payback.

“Now, now, be nice. Bento has done nothing to you!” Aigo berates, frowning at his friend, but the second Qiu shoots him a displeased glare and folds his beefy arms over his chest, Aigo is grinning like a cat.

“Well, that’s just a flat-out lie,” Qiu grumbles, then turns to glare at the salamander cat. “This beast has torn up more uniforms than I could ever count, knocks over my bookshelf constantly, and throws up hairballs all over the HQ!” Finally, Bento’s head pops up. Even laying down, with how long her neck is, the salamander cat is able to look level into Qiu’s eyes. Purring stopped, salamander cat and White Lotus glare each other down, Aigo still pinned to the ground and watching the two of them with intrigue.

After a few beats Qiu takes one step forward, leans towards Bento, and points at her as he says, “You are a menace.”

Bento pulls back her lips, showing sharp teeth, and hisses. Qiu’s arms pinwheel as he backs away, eyes widening while Aigo can only laugh at his misfortune. “Don’t encourage her!” Qiu snaps, looking between companion and master furiously and Aigo can only grin.

“Don’t insult my best bud,” Aigo hums as Bento curls her head back onto his chest, rubbing her face into his blue, Water Tribe undershirt in content. Aigo had been given a parka while he was at the poles, but it was way too hot and heavy for Republic City in the summer.

Qiu snorts, arms crossed. “Thought I was your best bud,” he huffs, apparently insulted, but Aigo can tell he’s playing it up.

“Oh yeah, totally you were, and then you went and blabbed to Master Siqiniq about what we talked about,” the Avatar manages to push himself up just enough to sit up, arms bracing behind him, and Bento’s head rolls into his lap. He gets a hand up to scratch just behind her ears, getting a louder purr, and the salamander cat’s large paws begin kneading the grass around Aigo.

“It seemed like something he could help with,” Qiu defends, frowning deeply. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me--”

“Yes I would’ve!” Aigo contradicts, but sags when Qiu gives him a  _ look _ . Aigo didn’t want Qiu to think he didn’t value his opinion…

“No, you wouldn’t have. You get too up in your head about how you see yourself. Shut up!” he cuts Aigo off just as the Avatar is opening his mouth. Aigo pouts. “You do. You put way too much weight behind these made up, personal issues in your head and you don’t listen when people assure you they aren’t true. Master Siqiniq at least knows how to get you to listen.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Aigo huffs, looking away, “By comparing me to Avatar Wan.”

“You realize that’s a compliment, right?” Qiu huffs, seeming to be getting tired of Aigo’s whining, and Aigo tries to repress a wince. He hadn’t meant to bother his friend, that was the last thing he wanted to do.

He hears Qiu sigh and only feels worse.

“Come on. Take your beast and let’s head back to the HQ. I’m starving,” the bigger boy says, turning as he speaks. Aigo would rather stick around and play with Bento in the open field for a bit longer, maybe go pet the local sky bison herd and sneak them treats, but he doesn’t want to agitate Qiu more than needed.

They could tease back and forth with the best of them, but it could get so tense and difficult between Aigo and Qiu when Aigo started, truly, moping. Qiu could only handle so much negativity.

So Aigo stands, urging Bento up as well, and they lead the salamander cat back towards the main building and the road back to Republic City. When they reach the back porch of the building a tall, thin man comes out to greet them. He’s smiling softly, crinkling his tan face and his grey-blue eyes squint, his head completely shaved and adorned with the vibrant, blue Air Nomad arrow.

“Hey there, Master Yun,” Aigo greets, forcing cheer into his voice. He thinks Yun likely knows he was pouting earlier but the monk doesn’t comment. He only smiles warmer.

“Hello, Avatar Aigo,” Yun bows his head. He’s wearing modest, Air Nation robes but the outer layer is dark blue with the White Lotus symbol on its back. Aigo never really understood Yun’s position in the order. He was a master in airbending, clearly since he had his tattoos, but within the White Lotus… Aigo wasn’t certain. He was one of the only, official airbending members, the rest remaining as Air Nomads entirely while assisting the White Lotus when needed, and he ran the Ranch, a White Lotus establishment that bred sky bison and helped train them for future airbenders.

Yun had said this was originally the job of the Eastern Air Temple, but with how often the Temples had been attacked the last two centuries they had decided having multiple breeding spots was a must.

Other than that, though, Aigo had no clue what Yun did. He just kind of… appeared when needed.

He was pretty nice, though, and always made Aigo feel a bit lighter, so it wasn’t a big deal.

“As always, Bento is looking great,” Aigo says, already beginning to feel his mood brighten as the Air Nomad steps down from the porch and comes nearer.

“It is always lovely to have her. She’s a welcome distraction for some of the moodier bison,” Yun nods, smiling over at Bento before holding his hand out patiently. Bento pauses, despite knowing Yun, and stretches her long neck to sniff the offered hand. Then she is rubbing her entire face along the Air Nomad’s blunt nails, purring happily.

Qiu steps towards Aigo then, having retrieved a stack of leather straps and buckles, handing them over to Aigo. “Her saddle. I hate riding that thing but  _ someone _ told our driver to head out without us,” he grumbles and Aigo clears his throat to cover a chuckle.

“Weird,” the Avatar hums, then moves to saddle the salamander cat. Halfway done his eyes drift up, just for a moment, and he spots a lone sky bison meandering nearby, heading for a trough of water. It’s bigger than the others, fur a bit more unruly, and the arrow and stripes that adorn its head and back are so pale they’re almost white. Even its face and belly are paler than usual. Aigo whistles. “That one’s new,” he comments and Yun glances over.

The Air Nomad chuckles, shaking his head. “That’s Fujin. He keeps to himself and isn’t too friendly around people he doesn’t know. Doesn’t seem like he’ll ever warm up to anyone, I’m afraid.”

“Why’s he so pale?” Qiu questions, Aigo continuing his work righting Bento’s saddle.

“Albinism, I believe. Poor thing’s near-blind, too. Trips over just about everything.” Just as Yun says that, the sky bison reaches the water trough and immediately stumbles into it, overshooting its location, and soaking the bison’s front leg fur. The three men flinch in sympathy, but Fujin just groans impatiently, shifts back, then leans down to lap at the water, uncaring.

Aigo shakes his head but can’t help but smile. Was it mean he kind of thought the big guy was cute?

He finishes up the saddle, Yun stepping away from Bento as the Avatar pats his best buddies flank. “Alright. We gotta head out. I’m ready to change out of these clothes and Qiu’s ready to eat,” Aigo grins, hooking his foot into a hooded stirrup and swinging the other across Bento’s back. He feels Bento rumble beneath him, pleased to be back in business, and Qiu grumbles as he comes over to join them.

Bento and Qiu have something of a stare off as he tries to climb on behind Aigo, while Aigo is faced away towards Yun. “Come by and visit soon. You know the sky bison love the company, and so do I,” Yun says kindly, still all warm smiles.

“Will do,” Aigo nods, completely meaning it, finally feeling Qiu clamber up behind him. “Thanks again for watching after Bento, Master Yun. We’ll see you later!” And with that he grips the handles on the saddle and clicks twice. At the sound command Bento is off and running instantly, rocketing down the dirt road, body swaying left and right with the motions, and then out of sight.

The Air Nomad stands at the back of the house a while longer, waving after them, before turning and trotting back inside. The house, or cabin, really, is modest and roomy, with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. It’s rustic, made of wood, and an ancient looking radio sits on a desk covered in reports and investigations.

Just as Yun is heading towards that desk and ancient radio, a shrill set of beeps in some semblance of a tune fills the air. The monk frowns, never liking the sound or the device it belongs to, and changes course to pick up the plastic device on his counter. It vibrates in his hand as he pulls out an attached antenna, flips it open, then presses a small, green button.

“You know, you still have not taught me how to shut this ringtone off from my flipper-phone,” Yun huffs into the receiver, holding the phone awkwardly by his face. They still had much bulkier versions of these things at the Temples and he was not faring well with these new, personalized versions.

On the other line he doesn’t receive any chuckle or grunt or anything. Instead, the White Lotus agent on the other end immediately goes into business. “We’re moving some delinquents from the local jail to our holding cells - a couple Hot-airs - and we’ll be needing your backup,” the female voice says. Yun thinks it must be Mingmei. It sounds like Mingmei.

He sighs. “Very well. What time shall I meet you at the precinct?” he asks, keeping his voice light, if a bit more serious.

“Tonight at eight. Don’t be late,” and then she’s hanging up without a good-bye, making Yun frown and eye the flipper-phone’s tiny screen, squinting to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

Definitely Mingmei…

~~~~

There are footsteps from down the hall, echoing off the barren, stone walls towards the main office near the back. Papers, boxes, files, and reports of all kinds are perfectly stacked and organized around the modest, square office. Shelves have been built into the stone, filled with scrolls and forms. A world map hangs on the back wall, just behind the main desk, perfectly organized pens, quills, and graphite set atop it. Torches line the sides of the entryway, lighting the room, while a lone candle sits on the desk for better, personal light.

Sitting at the desk, going over a report of a power outage in lower Republic City, sits a lone figure dressed in black. Their top is made of thick leather, buckled along the center, with long, tight sleeves and gloves. Metal bracers cover their forearms, exactly like those the police might wear, save these have been carved with abstract designs. Their pants are white and baggy, easy to move in, and are tucked into tight wrappings that circle their ankle up to the mid-calf. Their feet are bare save for a black, triangular cover over their tops that is held in place by a loop on the second toes.

Their hair is thick and black, tied back into a braid down their back, partially covering the wires attachment hanging there, and their face is completely concealed by a blue, fox mask.

The footsteps outside get closer.

The person looks up, expectant, and then there’s a knock at the door. They don’t wait for a reply, whoever they are, and the door opens up to reveal another person in similar dress as the first. The newcomer’s pants are grey, however, and are tucked into sturdy boots, while their hair is short, brown, and messy, and their blue mask depicts a wolf. They also lack the metal on the other’s uniform and instead multiple leathers of water hang on their body.

“Fox, ma’am, we got intel there’s a convoy moving tonight. Eight o’clock from the 8th District precinct. Multiple Breezes are scheduled to be moved into White Lotus custody,” the newcomer says, not standing at any kind of attention but speaking with respect to their authority.

Fox sighs, voice muffled by her mask, and shakes her head. “That’s not something we can let slide,” she says, considering the location of the precinct. “That is quite close to their headquarters. We won’t have much of an opening.”

“That won’t be a concern. The Avatar returned to the city today and has returned to White Lotus HQ. They won’t want him involved,” the wolf-masked boy assures, shaking his head.

“Are we certain? The Avatar left to finish his training. If he is fully realized we do not know what the White Lotus might do,” Fox says evenly and the boy hesitates, masked face tilting down in consideration. “Best not to risk it,” Fox decides, leaning back in her seat, “do we know which masters we’ll need to worry about?”

“Masters Siqiniq, Yun, and Mingmei,” the boy replies, looking up again, and Fox hums.

“Fire, water, and air. Not ideal but not a full cast today. Likely more interested in keeping the prisoners under control rather than an ambush,” Fox considers.

“They’re getting cocky.”

“They’ve always been cocky. Right now they’re being sloppy. I’m not sure why…” Fox trails off, looking sideways in thought.

“A trap?” offers the boy with a half shrug.

“Possibly,” Fox agrees. “Thank you, Wolf. Gather Hawk, ‘Coon, Dragon, and Mantis for the forward team with me. You, Tiger, and Vulture are running backup and reconnaissance.”

Wolf nods sharply, in affirmative and immediately turns around to hurry out the door to do as he’s told. Fox stands, not wasting any time herself, as she picks up a shiny, metallic ball from one of the shelves in the wall. It’s hefty and large and Fox sets both hands on it. Then the ball begins to separate, as if made of putty, Fox grunting with the effort, until she’s holding a newly formed ball in each hand, about the size of a baseball.

She lowers them, forcing the metallic substance to reform into flatter plating, then hovers them over solid, stiff metal plating on the sides of her belt. It takes another moment of concentration for a magnetic pull to develop and each shiny, metal plate snaps to Fox’s hips, ready for future use.

Time to get to business.

[][][][]

Aigo eyes himself in his bedroom mirror. He’s paler than usual, which is impressive, but he supposes it is part of being in the tundra for some time. His long, slick hair is loose and falls around his face like water, strands getting in his face now that they’re free. His eyes are thin and pale green, with a mole right beneath his left one. Qiu once said it was a beauty mark and only made him more of a pretty boy, but Aigo didn’t see it.

He’s dressed in the clothes the White Lotus gave him. A nice, shiny tang suit of emerald green and golden, gleaming embroidery and lining. The buttons that run up the middle shine gold with engraved lotuses in the middle. His pants are white and bland save for a golden qirin engraved at the base of the left leg, and they’re just high enough to show his ankles before his feet vanish into a pair of matching, emerald slippers embroidered with gold.

It’s well made, breathes great, fits perfectly… and Aigo hates it immensely.

The White Lotus had dropped a surprise dinner party on him as he had arrived at the HQ, something about greeting the press and shaking hands with the new President Chai, who had been elected in while Aigo was away, blah blah blah.

“Well, aren’t you just the prettiest belle of the ball?” comes a voice at the door and Aigo glances over his shoulder as Qiu enters without preamble. Aigo’s room is large, really large, with plenty of room for Bento to curl up under the huge window. It isn’t luxurious from what Aigo’s seen, but he’s happy with the space.

At the moment, though, he scowls, looking back at his reflection. He hates having to dress up, it always feels so confining and suffocating. As comfortable and soft as these clothes might be, they always felt like they were strangling Aigo and overheating him at the same time. They weighed on him, a reminder of his duties and requirements, and he was always painfully aware of any sharp object or wet substance that might tear or stain the clothes. His brain was on such high alert it was almost like it had shut off. Like there were so many sounds it became a singular, numbing hum.

Aigo doesn’t say any of this, though, and instead says, “They can’t ever get me clothes from this decade, can they?”

“Don’t be stuck up,” Qiu rolls his eyes, stepping into view of the mirror and placing a heavy hand on Aigo’s shoulder. Aigo thinks it’s supposed to be assuring, but it only burns. “Come on, this is the easy stuff.”

“Making people like you is not easy…”

“Sure it is! Just smile all pretty-like, wave, kiss some babies, and make President Chai feel important. Make him feel  _ special _ !” Qiu grins and Aigo narrows his eyes at him in the mirror.

“This isn’t a date, Qiu.”

“Kinda has the same principles,” the White Lotus agent shrugs, stepping away. He quickly takes a step in the opposite direction when he spies Bento laying curled up on a mattress on the ground - under the window for optimal sunning and covered in sheets, blankets, and pillows - her eyes open and watching him. Qiu glares back at her.

“Don’t bully Bento,” Aigo mumbles absently.

“ _ She’s _ bullying  _ me _ !” Qiu yelps indignantly and Aigo discreetly rolls his eyes, straightening the tall collar of his suit. He hates how it pokes at the underside of his jaw.

“I guess it won’t be all bad,” Aigo sighs, brushing the hair out of his face then pouting when it flops back. “I’ll at least have you to complain with.” 

The silence that follows his comment is telling and Aigo feels his stomach drop, looking back at Qiu who is looking off at the far wall. “What?! You’re not coming?!”

The White Lotus agent sighs, ducking his head and scrubbing a hand through his hair, mussing it up. “I got called out to work on some mission or other. Just guard duty, but it came from Master Siqiniq. I couldn’t exactly say no,” he explains, sounding apologetic at least. But Aigo only feels more upset.

“A mission? What kind of mission? Why didn’t I get called to help out?” he questions, nerves beginning to fray further.

“It doesn’t sound like a big deal. Something about a convoy. My guess is it’s goods or something and they were hoping to assure safety.”

“What if someone needs help? That’s literally my job!” Aigo squeaks, eyes wide.

“One man can’t help everyone, Avatar or not,” Qiu comments, giving Aigo an arched-brow look. “It’s our job to help people, too. Right now your focus needs to be making sure the higher ups of the world stay on your side. It’ll be fine.”

Qiu steps towards Aigo, reaching out and squeezing the shorter man’s shoulder. Where it had burned with discomfort before, now the action felt cold. Aigo wasn’t sure why he had such a difficult time accepting his friend’s comfort, but he did, and right now wasn’t any different. He felt sick to his stomach and lost. 

There was so much that worried him, weighed on his shoulders, made his gut twist up unpleasantly, when it came to being an Avatar, but helping people always made him feel better. Helping people was his calling, saving villages and workers and families around the world, he was good at that. Sure, being a full-fledged Avatar would help in the long run, but it rarely mattered when he was faced with the grateful expressions of the townspeople he’d just protected. Seeing someone’s smiling face after facing true terrors, hearing their first breath after a near-death experience, listening to families cry in joy as a lost child is returned… That made Aigo feel good. Made him feel important.

Everything else… not so much, and now the White Lotus didn’t want him to come along for something he might  _ actually _ be good at? Aigo doubts they even wanted him to know about it, but Qiu had let it slip.

Were they… were they upset with him? Was this punishment for failing so miserably at waterbending? Were they going to put him on the sidelines until he figured it out?

Qiu pats his shoulder once more and says something that doesn’t quite reach the Avatar’s mind. Aigo thinks he replies back and then his friend is slipping out of the room, shutting the door behind him, leaving Aigo to spiral.

The Avatar breathes deeply, remembering meditation techniques the Air Nomads had shown him when he’d studied airbending. His emotions were swirling and crashing and crushing, but he kept his body firm and under control.

Did the White Lotus not trust him anymore? Did they  _ hate _ him, now? Were they realizing how much of a failure of an Avatar he was?

No. No no no, he couldn’t handle this. He couldn’t have them seeing him as spare weight. He couldn’t let them believe he was useless. Maybe as an Avatar he fell short, but he could still help people! Like Qiu said, it wasn’t just the Avatar’s job to help people, so maybe Aigo could help as a… surprisingly talented earth-, fire-, and airbending fighter?

“Bento,” Aigo says and the salamander cat’s head comes up, blinking big, round eyes at him. “Change of plans.” Bento’s head tilts sideways as if she’s listening, but likely means she has no clue what Aigo said.

The Avatar doesn’t mind. He moves to begin undoing the stifling suit and pulling out something more comfortable. “We’re helping. If President Chai is worth anything, he’ll understand.”

[][][][]

Aigo never truly had a place to call home, moving around the world so much. Sure, he lived in Ba Sing Se for the first years of his life, but he’d been homeless and orphaned with only his little sister. Nowadays, he supposed, if he had to pick someplace as home he’d pick Republic City.

It’s dark out by now, the sun having just set, and the lights that coat the city look like multicolored stars. Which is good, since no one can see the stars in the sky around here.

The buildings have grown taller, even in Aigo’s lifetime, and look like a mountain range, highest in the center and tapering out towards the bay or the fields. Spirit vines curl amongst the pathways and buildings, the beam of the spirit portal streaking into the sky from the epicenter, intermingling effortlessly and contrasting the solid, geometric forms of the human constructions. Aigo can spy a few of the incorporeal spirits floating about, faintly glowing, and unearthly lights within the vine structures.

People at rest, and others out for the night. Human and spirit alike. The noise at night in the city is so different than anywhere else, shifting rather than quieting. It’s beautiful, in its way.

Aigo looks out on it all, legs gripping tight at Bento’s saddle so he doesn’t slip off as the salamander car clings effortlessly to the side of an apartment building. They’d been waiting there for a while after they’d slipped out of Aigo’s huge bedroom window, Bento slipping down the side of the HQ without a sound then hopping them onto nearby roofs. They’d tracked down White Lotus agents and followed them around town, trying to find something that might be a convoy, until finding a single, military-grade truck that matched the expected mission requirements.

They’d followed until the truck came up to the back of the 8th District precinct - right beside the southern ports where shrimp boaters work on their old, wooden docks - and they’d settled on a nearby wall, waiting for something to happen. Qiu could say what he wanted, but if the White Lotus thought guards were needed they likely expected trouble, and Aigo would be there to help.

He’d changed into a much more comfortable, normal ensemble for himself. Brown carpenter pants, black combat boots underneath, a white t-shirt, and a green, khaki bomber jacket with fur-lined hood. The fur was a much more pleasant feeling against his neck than that rough collar, and while the jacket wasn’t a great choice for this time of year, with the sun set it was just cool enough for Aigo to enjoy it.

He’d tied his long hair back again, the low pony-tail dangling towards the ground as he held himself sideways on Bento’s saddle. It had taken a lot of core training and leg days to make sure he could stay on his trusty companion comfortably even when they were stuck to a vertical surface.

He would have liked to also wear some earrings - he liked a little bit of decoration to his outfits - but he’d learned a while back that jewelry in a fight was a bad idea. Just look at his left earlobe… Ah, well, he’d always kind of liked the one earring look.

And now he waited, looking out at the trucks - three in total - and the White Lotus agents that mill about. He can’t recognize Qiu from here, all the lower ranks have their helmets on, but he swears he sees the grey, long hair of Siqiniq. There’s also another, uncovered head. Their hair is black and cropped at their shoulders with a bun on the top of their head. Very traditional and very telling. Master Mingmei.

Master Mingmei terrifies Aigo.

Master Mingmei terrifies everyone.

What he doesn’t understand, however, is why the convoy is stopping at the precinct. He knows this particular one has pretty sizable holding cells, he’d helped bring criminals in before and he’d seen them, but he’s pretty sure that’s all they have. Qiu had said he thought they’d be moving goods, Aigo had assumed that meant to people in need and thieves or gang members might try to steal it, but that’s not what this looked like.

Albeit, Qiu hadn’t actually known, he’d been guessing, but this… something felt off about this. It wouldn’t be foreign to transport prisoners, the White Lotus handled the most dangerous after all, but why wouldn’t they want Aigo to back them up for that? They had in the past.

The dreadful, self-conscious pit in his stomach only grew.

More vehicles soon joined the truck, carrying more guards and ready to move the convoy to its final destination. Aigo had asked, once, why they never used blimps or planes to move the prisoners and they’d told him that vehicles were more inconspicuous. Often, the people the White Lotus handled still had allies waiting to free their friends.

Aigo kept watch, though, despite how awful he felt. Part of him wants to flee and go back to politics and fancy dress, but most of him wants to stay. This is what he’s good at. He needs to be here.

And then Bento begins to rumble with a growling hiss. Aigo looks to her, placing a hand on her fluffy neck in hopes of easing her, and asks, “What is it, girl?” She’s staring at something and when Aigo looks up, trying to follow her gaze, he sees them.

Well, he doesn’t know who “they” are, but he sees shadowy figures moving swiftly over the rooftops a few blocks from the precinct. It isn’t hard to tell they’re heading towards the White Lotus’s convoy, circling around the precinct a few roofs away, keeping their distance, and shifting to be better inline with the back.

Aigo narrows his eyes. They’re dressed dark and definitely not White Lotus. They are definitely, definitely, not supposed to be there.

He grips the handles on Bento’s saddle and growls, “Oh, no you don’t.” He licks his lips, ready to click a command for Bento to move them down there, when a voice above him interrupts.

“Oh, yes we do.”

Aigo startles, twisting to look straight up into a blue, tiger mask staring down from the edge of the roof. Bento twists on the wall, facing up to snarl at the abrupt newcomer, but their mask only tilts to one side.

Aigo tries to take rapid stock. They’re crouched, dressed in black leathers save for baggy, black sweatpants. They’re barefoot - probably a bender - and behind their tiger mask Aigo sees a wild mane of pure white hair.

Nobody moves, Bento snarling and shifting, ready to swipe at the mask-person. Tiger mask? Blue tiger? Aigo would go with Tiger for now.

“They’re with you?” Aigo demands, jabbing a thumb back towards where he saw the figures. Tiger says nothing, just stares, and Aigo gets the feeling he’s being mocked. He scowls. “What’s your game, huh? You might want to talk, too. I’m the Avatar and you really don’t want to be on my bad list.”

He’s bluffing, mostly. He doesn’t pull the Avatar card often, but if it can keep others from getting hurt he’ll use it as much as he can.

Tiger hums, Aigo noting they sound female. More fact to use if he has to find her later.

“Yeah, I’m with ‘em,” Tiger says, answering Aigo’s first question. Then she’s pointing to something behind Aigo and adds, “So are they.”

Aigo twists around just as a swipe of air rams into his face. It’s only by some miracle he keeps his grip on Bento, lurching sideways by the powerful force of the airbending strike, and scrabbling to grab the saddle’s handles. As he’s struggling Bento swivels, screeching down at their attackers before sweeping out with her long tail.

Someone screeches in surprise and Aigo looks down to track his attackers. There’s someone… riding a wooden board? They’re flying, what look like curved sails coming off the sides of the board as the rider  _ airbends _ down to catch whoever got knocked off the board with them. Aigo has only ever seen Air Nomads fly on gliders, he’s never seen a contraption like this before!

They both have on blue masks.

Aigo has no intention of being distracted by these people, however, needing to hurry and help the convoy out  _ now _ .

He turns back to Tiger in time to swipe away an incoming boulder, twisting his body and swinging his arms over his head so he can fling it right back. Tiger forces out a slab of earth from the building’s wall, the boulder colliding with it and erupting into a cloud of dirt and debris. Aigo clicks hurriedly at Bento, making her rapidly climb straight up the building, and he splits the cloud for them as they rush up. Bento hisses, striking out her head and snapping her teeth to latch onto Tiger…

But Tiger isn’t there.

Aigo twists, a ball of fire erupting in his hand, ready to strike, when he feels the air shift. Tiger jumped off the roof with a boost of earth, airborne and staring straight back at Aigo, rocks hovering around her.

Aigo flings the fireball, reeling back his other fist to punch out with more. The shots of fire fly through the air but collide and explode with the rocks Tiger expertly throws back. Another cloud of debris stops Aigo’s vision and he blows it away with a gust of wind.

Hovering now where Tiger had once been falling is the airbender on their weird, hoverboard. They have a bird’s mask, Aigo thinks of a Vulture - he’ll call them Vulture - and standing right beside them on the back of the board is Tiger.

Hovering in Tigers hand is a spear of earth. A spear that is very quickly glowing red. A spear whose air quivers as it rapidly heats up.

Aigo’s eyes widen in panic. A lavabender?!

He whistles and clicks at Bento immediately, the salamander cat taking off just as Tiger launches the spear at them. It buries itself halfway into the roof where Aigo’s leg would have been. Bento rockets across the rooftop, Aigo leaning left and right to steer her as more molten spears begin raining down after them.

“Stay out of this,  _ oh great Avatar _ !” Tiger calls, the last bit in a mocking tone, and Aigo scowls.

“Stop throwing lava at me, then!” he calls back but only gets mad laughter in return.

Hadn’t there been three of them, though? One airbender on the board, the lavabender, and the one that Bento had smacked off the board that had to be saved. Where’d the third one go? Where--

Bento shrieks in surprise when a wall of frozen spikes shoots up between the rooftops they’re trying to get across. Aigo curses, maneuvering Bento sideways to avoid the wall, her claws scraping as she changes direction.

There’s the third one. Looks like they’re a waterbender, too. Crud.

Aigo snarls and twists his body around to fire a barrage of fire at his pursuers. Vulture weaves the hoverboard-thingie out of the way, Tiger flailing her arms to keep from falling off, but the third one - dog mask? - had only just slid up a ramp of ice and hardly has time to block one, two, three bursts of fire. Aigo hears them cry out as they tumble back down their ice.

Poor guy couldn’t catch a break, but Aigo refused to feel bad for… cult members? The masks felt cult-y.

A well aimed lava spear has Bento hopping sideways as she moves, barely missing the attack, but that spare second not touching the ground is enough for Vulture to palm-heel a vortex of air straight at them, throwing Bento off balance. The salamander cat’s claws try to take purchase of the ground as she is tripped up, scrabbling, and Tiger bundles up an extra large spear of lava to launch at them.

Aigo, however, hops his feet up to stand on the saddle, facing back, and throws both fists up in front of him in a block, a wall of earth erupting just behind them to halt the incoming spear. It collides with the wall and sinks through, point of it hovering nearly right at Aigo’s wide eyes. The Avatar gulps, staring at the spear, before hurrying back into the saddle and urging Bento back on.

His companion this time, however, doesn’t hop to the next roof, instead scrambling over the edge and walking down along the wall, back to clinging vertically, then twists around so Aigo can face upward.

The Avatar pulls back his fist and waits. He can’t feel the wind on his bald head, he isn’t bald, but he can feel a minor shift on his face and then he’s punching forward to send a shot of fire out.

Just as the Vulture’s board comes into view, not seeing where Aigo went, the fire bursts against one of the side sails, erupting it in flame. Vulture and Tiger both cry out, trying to put it out as the board spirals out of control. It’s no use and, right before they hit a lower rooftop, Vulture spins a protective cyclone of air beneath them and saves them from serious injury.

They aren’t defeated, but they won’t be able to stop Aigo now.

“Okay, Bento. Lets go help the convoy,” Aigo says, voice only slightly shaky and out of breath. Bento mrrp’s back at him and, when Aigo clicks appropriately, launches off the side of the building to land gracefully on a nearby roof. They don’t waste time rushing towards the precinct, but even from here Aigo can see the figures moving in, ready to strike, just as the vehicles are pulling away.

“Ready for a boost, buddy?” Aigo calls, whistling a low then high tune after, and Bento takes a running leap into the air. Aigo, once they're up, points both his arms back and lets loose streams of propelling flames. They glide over the last few roofs, right over the crouched figures, and then Aigo bends cushioning air beneath Bento as they land on the street below.

The convoy screeches to a halt to keep from colliding with him and Aigo leaps off Bento as doors slam open.

“Avatar Aigo?!” the unmistakable sound of Master Mingmei’s rage hits him first but he puts up his hands placatingly.

“Pull back the convoy!” he yells to all of them as Siqiniq slips out a passenger door of a cruiser, robes billowing, and storms towards Aigo.

“Avatar Aigo, what is the meaning of this?! You are meant to be entertaining President Chai, not here!” the waterbender booms and Aigo flinches back, eyes widening. He’d never heard Siqiniq’s voice raise like that before… It was… not a good feeling. Far, far from it.

“I… I came to help. That’s my… you didn’t bring me along! But I can show you I can still help!” Aigo tries to defend, but shrinks away when Siqiniq’s face grows even stormier with outrage. Along the convoy White Lotus and police are leaning out of doors or standing up on the edge of the car to see what’s going on. Aigo, somehow, manages to find Qiu’s familiar face out of all of them, partially hidden by his mask.

He’s shaking his head in disappointment and Aigo’s throat closes up.

“You should not be here,” Siqiniq says, voices shifting back to something cold and awful and Aigo wants to cry. “You were given your duties for tonight and you have abandoned them. That isn’t acceptable.”

“But… But, this is more important than some fancy dinner!” Aigo tries to argue, growing frantic as the breaths in his gut begin to speed up. Control. Control them. Control the in and out. Don’t lose yourself.

“Do not pretend to understand anything!” Master Mingmei booms, storming over, her golden eyes seeming to be on fire themselves. “You are a child and you act like it! This is unacceptable! Unacceptable!”

“Now, now,” comes a much calmer voice as Yun walks calmly along the line of vehicles. He must have been stationed in the back and was only now catching up. “There is no need for that kind of response. The young Avatar’s intentions are admirable.”

Aigo can’t smile but he’s grateful. He’s so grateful. Yun’s probably completely wrong and will be ignored, but it helps Aigo take a moment to gather himself again.

“This is not about intentions, Master Yun,” Siqiniq says coldly back to the Nomad, who peers down at the waterbender calmly. “This is about actions and responsibility, both of which Avatar Aigo has inordinately disregarded!”

“No, but,” Aigo flinches when the attention is back on him, but forces himself to keep going. “You’re under attack! The convoy needs to wait to move later because these people on the roofs, in blue masks--”

Siqiniq and Master Mingmei’s eyes immediately widen and the firebender snaps, “Blue masks?!”

Nothing more can be said, however, as a rolling stream of upended earth emerges from a side alley towards an empty cruiser. Vertical pillars of earth then burst upward beneath the vehicle, sending the cruiser flying, alarm blaring.

The whole street is quick to fall into chaos. With a pointed motion of Aigo’s hand he tells Bento to hide, not wanting her hurt with all this bending, and then leaps into the fray. A figure with a blue racoon mask leaps from the alley, sending three officers flying when they land and rocket the earth underneath them. Three more figures descend from the roof. One with a dragon mask rides down on a wave of water, knocking aside a White Lotus and an officer before Siqiniq is stepping in to confront them. One boosts with small fire jets under their feet wearing a bug mask of some kind, but doesn’t get a chance to take anyone out before they have to break a stream of incoming fire from Mingmei.

The final one swings in on metal cords, exactly like those the police metalbenders use, and begins incapacitating other metalbenders. They’re wearing a fox mask and they weave around incoming metal, earth, fire, and ice like an airbender, but then strike out with the ferocity of fire. Metal cords are stopped midair and then spiral back around, attacking at their owners like angered snakes.

It’s a crowd against four… and the four are somehow winning. Or, they haven’t been taken down.

Yun is attempting to get to the fox one, but Raccoon is keeping him at bay with small, precision earthbending. Yun seems to be faring well, but whenever he tries to shift targets the other takes the opportunity to deal haymakers and boulders.

So Aigo narrows his gaze on Fox.

He leaps, air taking him over other’s heads and straight at the metalbender. His fist is pulled back for fire, the enemy not even looking at him, and he lets loose a stream of fire.

And then Fox twists, spinning clockwise, and in two steps they avoid the fire, slip under Aigo’s feet, and then slide their left foot hard along the ground with a twist like a sweep. The pillar of earth that comes from the ground is diagonal and it rams into Aigo’s left side, knocking the air out of him and sending him flying. He slams into the side of a vehicle, air only managing to cushion him a little, and he groans. The world sways around him as a ringing fills his ears, head listing back and forth. The sounds around him are muffled but he can tell it’s chaos, bouncing around in his head unforgivingly.

That had been… super fast. Fox was, surprise surprise, apparently clever. And fast. And  _ vicious _ .

Oh, sweet spirits everything hurt. But he can’t give up now. He has a job to do, protecting the innocent, his allies, and the people in that truck. Whoever they were transporting was clearly bad news, but that didn’t mean they should get hurt, but they also couldn’t be freed. So… maybe Aigo should use the chaos as an opportunity to move the prisoners? He probably wouldn’t be able to fight while his head is still ringing and his vision is bursting with lights.

He groans as he somehow manages to pull himself from the vehicle’s crumpled door, back screaming at him, glass clinking as it falls off his back to the ground. The jacket had at least kept him from getting cut up.

His knees nearly give out from under him when he takes a step. Spirits, how hard had he been hit? He’d been in plenty of fights before but that one had been something else. Who were these people?!

He manages to get his feet under him after a moment and moves around the busted cruiser. He slips along the outside of the convoy line towards the truck, out of sight from the fight, and then slips around to the back. The back doors open with a screech, but at that very moment a White Lotus goes screaming by, thrown through the air by someone, so Aigo guesses no one notices.

He throws both doors open and holds an ember in his palm, lighting up the interior.

Both sides of the truck have a long bench and they are filled with people. “Alright, I’m getting you back to the precinct. No one make any funny moves,” he says, hoping they fall for his bluff. He still feels really dizzy from the blow, but he’ll stop them with all he’s got if he has to.

Then he actually takes in the people inside. They’re all sitting with hands cuffed behind their backs, clothes simple if a bit raggedy, and cloth wrapped around their mouths, gagging them. They range in age, but… But all of them look pretty young. And their eyes…

Their eyes are terrified and mostly grey. One girl who looks no older than ten has tears rolling down her face. Another is curled up on the floor and shaking. Another is staring off vacantly. Another--

Aigo’s eyes widen and he reaches forward. “Asha?!” he yelps.

Sitting near him is a familiar young boy from just that morning. He’s cuffed and terrified like the rest of the passengers and Aigo can’t understand why he’s here. Why most of these people are here… 

Aigo grabs hold of the cloth around Asha’s mouth and tries to pull it off, having to fight with it a little, and he asks, “Why are  _ you _ here?” What good would the White Lotus have with a young fish thief? Breeze hooligan or not, this didn’t make sense.

Asha doesn’t answer though. He shakes his head, spitting now that his mouth is free, then turns urgent eyes on Aigo. “Bomb! They put a bomb on the bottom of the truck! I heard them say so!”

Aigo’s eyes widen even further, his heart hammering in his chest and most of the dizziness in his head abruptly dissipating. He swallows, eyes flicking down, before crouching down. His knees hit the pavement and he tilts his head low to get a look under the truck, zeroing in on the bulky form that shouldn’t be there. There’s a blinking red light and a steady green one and… Aigo had dealt with a few bombs on his missions in the past. He knew what they looked like.

“Bomb…” he whispers to himself, shocked and horrified. His initial, furious belief is that these blue-masked attackers did this. That these people in the truck are their enemies, not their friends. But they wouldn’t have had any chance to get something like that installed. They’d only just appeared now.

Aigo looks back into the truck, terrified faces looking back at him, and he repeats, “Bomb!”

“ _ What?! _ ”

Aigo is on his feet and spinning around in a second, fiery daggers leaping from his fists. The fight is still going on, the White Lotus masters the main enemies to these attackers, agents and officers having mostly been taken out, but at some point the metalbender had slipped away.

“Don’t even think--” Aigo begins, ready to fight and definitely not planning on letting this… woman, he thinks, get the better of him again. But Fox cuts him off before he can finish.

“Did you say bomb?” Fox snaps, urgent, and Aigo’s brows rise, flame sputtering out. He nods, but it’s Asha who answers.

“It's on the underside of the truck! They wanted to use it on you!”

Aigo whips around to stare at Asha in disbelief. They clearly are talking about the White Lotus, but that would mean they’ve known about these blue mask people before all this. That would mean they’d had issues with them and never told Aigo. That would mean they were getting so desperate they were willing to put multiple people in mortal danger.

But… no. No, Aigo had to be missing something. He had to be.

He has no chance to think over this when Fox shoves past him and sets into a low stance. She holds out her fists, arms steady and firm, then throws them sideways like ripping something off a wall. The sound of shrieking metal comes from beneath the truck as part of the bottom is torn off, bomb still attached. The hunk of metal hovers where Fox holds it, reshifting her weight.

“Mantis!” she calls, a loud, authoritative voice cutting through the battle, and then she steps forward, turns, and with the momentum of a spin she hurls the bomb high into the air and down the road.

Aigo doesn’t see the build up, or even how “Mantis'' gets away from Master Mingmei, but as the bomb hits its apex a bolt of lightning arches off the bug-masked’s fingers. The second it hits the bomb it erupts, a fiery ball of destruction booming out and shaking the street. Street lamps shatter and Aigo is quick to brace himself at the truck’s door, ready to keep shrapnel from hurting the prisoners.

The others on the street are quick to duck and cover, getting low or hiding behind earthen, protective walls. The passengers cry out, muffled by their gags, and Aigo can only watch in horror at the billowing ball of flame. It lights up his face with violent oranges and halos Fox’s body as she stands, rooted, staring at the explosion. The only thing that moves on the woman is her thick braid, violently blowing in the shockwave.

As the explosion fades, glowing embers tumbling to the ground like morbid rain, Fox turns her body around to face Aigo again. Aigo… Aigo is still pretty shaken.

“Move,” she commands, voice cold, and it’s enough to shake Aigo out of his state, shaking his head and focusing on the person before him. He reminds himself that this is his enemy, but the ominous cloud of smoke that sets the background makes everything in him twist with discomfort.

“No,” he says, voice not-quite steady. He still adjusts into a firebending stance, palm and fist raised. “You’re not getting any further. These prisoners--”

“Prisoners?” Fox spits and throws a hand out towards the truck. There’s no bending to accompany the motion, it’s just emphasis. “These look like prisoners to you? Bunch of children and defenseless women? Your precious White Lotus was prepared to sacrifice them to get to us. They planned to use our care for our friends and loved ones against us!”

Fox’s shoulders lower, looking like a predator as their whole body zeroes in on Aigo. Her hands clench at her hips and shiny plates that hang on her belt abruptly begin to melt and collect on her fingers. When she straightens then flexes her fingers again, the gathered liquid metal condenses and solidifies, forming gleaming, metal claws.

“And you are used just as much, aren’t you? Their perfect, pet Avatar,” Fox mocks cooly, before bursting into motion. 

The first swipe of her claws narrowly misses, Aigo ducking under her arm at the last second and the metal shearing a few strands of hair. He steps around her, swift and light like he’d done with the Air Nomads, avoiding the striking claws, but Fox is fast and nimble, turning to meet Aigo’s turn with a sharp elbow to the temple. It reawakens the ringing in his ears, but only for a split second, and he retaliates with a double palm strike that sends a current of air into Fox’s back.

Except Fox doesn’t budge, her feet encased in rock to keep steady, stance low, and Aigo sees his chance.

He slides his foot along the ground, forcing the earth of one of Fox’s feet to pull sideways, undoing her stance. She fumbles, arms flailing, but still lashes backwards to counter somehow, Aigo halting it with a quick jab of air, knocking away the limb. With the girl off kilter Aigo spins swiftly on one foot, a trail of fire following the other in a hook kick at Fox’s head.

Fox manages to bend at her hip, holding her torso and head low as the kick and fire trails over her head.

The second his toes touch the ground he lifts the foot up again, avoiding the stream of earth that is kicked over by Fox’s heel, her stance righted, and instead front kicks a fireball straight at her. She’ll have to move for this one, freeing her feet and side stepping out of the way of the fire. The transition in her footwork is where Aigo hopes to trip her up for good, stepping his own feet into a horse stance towards Fox and punching from his side.

The pillar of rock that bursts by Fox’s side, rocketing towards her head, is only a little bit fueled by personal retribution.

But it doesn’t collide as, faster than Aigo can react, Fox spins around the pillar, swinging out her hand like a blade at the pillar, and slices off the top. With the same spin she takes control of the severed rock, pulls her body back as she twists, then hurls it right back into Aigo’s face.

Aigo reacts with a quick outside block, right arm coming in then swinging out, body shifting into a front stance to match his movements, and the rock swings to the side and out of harm's way.

Before he can settle into the new stance, however, almost exactly as he propels the rock away, something wraps around his forward ankle. He recognizes the end of a metal whip, the same the police use.

The one Fox apparently uses, too.

He has no time to react as he’s yanked off his feet and forward, flying by his ankle as his opponent pulls him in an arch over her head, then crashing into the street. Aigo bounces as he crashes, earth splintering as he instinctively tries to lessen the impact, but it rattles the bones through his body.

He feels the whip release his leg and return to its owner as he groans, getting his hands underneath him. It takes a lot of effort to push up, swaying once before he can look around. He’s been thrown into the heart of the fight. Or, what used to be the fight.

Siqiniq is some paces away, out cold, and Yun is struggling to break free of a cone of earth holding his body in place. Master Mingmei is the only one left standing, fighting hard and vicious against Mantis, Raccoon, and Dragon, but even she can’t last for long. Aigo thinks she might be able to down the Raccoon one after a mistake on their part, but a streak of silver rockets by and catches her hand.

The silver looks like a metallic hand, but then it is liquifying and reforming a ball around Master Mingmei’s hand, encompassing it, then dragging her viciously into a light pole.

Aigo forces himself further up, struggling to get his feet under him, looking around as the masked attackers rush towards the truck. Raccoon climbs into the driver’s seat while Dragon and Mantis hurry into the back, shutting the doors behind them.

The truck is put into gear as quickly as possible, wheels screeching as they hit the gas.

Aigo scowls, puts his fingers to the ground, and swings towards the fleeing vehicle. The rock he sends after it hardly gets any far before Fox kicks it right out of the air like it’s nothing, standing tall amongst the carnage she was leaving behind. Her mask slowly turns, surveying, then pauses to look at the masters still conscious. 

“Leave my people alone!” she says, voice booming and threatening, and then her arm is reaching out and the metal whips are flying from her bracers, latching onto a flag pole and yanking her into the air to go after her friends.

Aigo snarls, furious and frustrated, and forces his shaking legs to just  _ work _ already. Every muscle screamed at him as he moved but he forced himself to ignore it. Ignore the pain, ignore the struggle, just move forward.

Air rockets him after the fleeing attackers, Aigo ignoring the panicked call from Yun as he goes, “Avatar, wait!” Whoever these people were they were dangerous. They’d taken out a squad of trained fighters alongside three masters. One of them had handled the Avatar like it was nothing. They couldn’t be left alone to do what they wanted.

He isn’t far behind, sees the truck just as Fox catches up and lands on top of it. He scowls at her and, using that boiling frustration, he lets loose a massive bolt of fire. It collides with the ground right by the truck, swerving it, and getting Fox to look back at him.

Aigo is high, hopping off roofs, walls, lamps, poles, wires, anything he can use to keep up with the truck.

For a moment Fox stares up at him, unmoving, before she’s lashing out with her arm. The metal whip comes streaking at Aigo from his left between his jumps. It’s well timed, but Aigo manages to tuck his body, twist, and push out a sphere of air around him, disrupting the whip. It messes up his jump, sending him back to the ground, but as he lands he rolls into it. With one knee down, the other up, he rolls both fists forward, dragging the earth with the motion.

The stream of upturned earth barrels straight at the truck, certain to catch a tire at the least, but Fox is jumping off the back of the vehicle and lands, forcing her fists in the way of Aigo’s attack, halting it with an explosion of dirt.

Aigo slides to a halt, breathing heavy, staring down Fox as she stands back up, staring back behind her mask. The truck swerves behind a corner, out of sight, and Aigo scowls. Fox tilts her head.

“You’re coming back with me,” the Avatar growls, fists tightening so hard his knuckles turn white.

“No,” Fox replies, calm as can be, “I’m not.” The whip she hurls at him drags sharp over the ground, kicking up dirt as it rockets at Aigo. He barely needs to dodge, but coughs as the dirt obscures his vision. When he blows the cloud away Fox is already airborne, whips dragging her up and swinging her between buildings.

“Show off,” Aigo huffs before taking chase. Fox is fast but she’s more limited with her metal. Aigo has the advantage of mobility with his airbending. It doesn’t take long before Aigo is above her, ready to drop down, when he flings her fist back at him. A whip almost appears out of nowhere, snapping loudly as it catches his shoulder. He grinds his teeth at the sharp pain, leap and attack subdued, and he tumbles into a rough landing on a nearby rooftop.

He hurries to stand, leaping back after Fox as she scales higher into the air thanks to a powerline. She’s high, in a similar state that Aigo had been just a second before, and Aigo doesn’t hesitate to lash out, fire leaping from his fist. He isn’t going to let her have another opportunity to knock him around. He’s been humiliated enough and he can’t let Fox get away.

The woman must not be expecting Aigo’s attack, glancing over her shoulder to likely see how far he’s trailing, just as Aigo’s fire crashes right into the side of her face.

He hears the woman cry out, surprised and hurt, her entire momentum thrown for a loop as she’s thrown sideways before plummeting. Aigo hurries to go after her as she crashes into a roof, rolling and sliding off its curved surface. She scrambles to grab onto the edge, but her hands slip as the red shingles come loose and she keeps tumbling.

Aigo stops at the edge of the rooftops, looking down as Fox manages to lessen her fall as she catches onto a series of clothing lines that hangs between the buildings. From his vantage point Aigo can see the 8th District's wooden port easily as well as the alleys of the shorter buildings leading to it and it gives him an idea.

“Well?! What happened? You were so much more powerful before!” he calls down at Fox, throwing down fire and blocking off the way back towards the city.

Fox shakes herself out and looks up at him and…

Aigo’s eyes widen.

The mask… the mask is gone. The fire had struck her face and now… It was gone and he could see her face and…

Well, if looks could kill, that glare would definitely burn Aigo to a crisp, her silver eyes staring up at him. She’s frowning, black bangs pushed back from the mask, skin dark…

And sitting there, on her forehead, is a vibrant, red, Air Nomad arrow.

“I don’t need power to keep you away from my people,” Fox snarls up at him, venom in her voice, and then she’s running, shaking Aigo out of his surprise. He scrambles to keep up, shooting fire after the woman, keeping her moving but also blocking off pathways.

“The fuck are you doing with tattoos like that, huh?!” he yells down at her, fury beginning to boil in his chest as he truly takes in what he’d seen. “Those markings are sacred to the Air Nation! Have you really no respect for them that you would shame them like this?!”

“The Air Nomads have no shame! That is the problem!” Fox yells back, weaving through the fire. She’s moving funky, likely from her fall, and Aigo resolutely ignores the sour feeling that gives him.

“So you think you can just… STEAL their culture? Because you think they DESERVE it?!” Aigo’s voice rises further, growing more angry with his incredulity.

“You don’t know  _ ANYTHING _ !” Fox roars and, with a twist, launches her shiny, metallic, glove-thing up at Aigo. It snaps over his foot just as it nears the edge of the roof, melting and solidifying rapidly to stick him to the stone. Aigo curses and blasts fire after Fox’s retreating figure, then looks down. Hands still hot with his anger he reaches down to try and break off the metallic substance.

But as the heat of his hands touches the metal… it begins to melt. It liquifies under Aigo’s grasp, dripping off the roof like water, and when Aigo raises his hands to look at them they’ve been stained grey.

What the hell was this stuff?!

But he doesn’t have time to concern himself with that, shaking the remainder of the liquid metal from his boot and leaping after Fox. Even after losing her, they’d still been close to Aigo’s intended destination and he’s grateful she’d ended up heading straight for it.

Fox skids to a halt as she exits the alleys, seeing the wooden docks before her, and is turning, ready to find a different route, when Aigo lands heavily right behind her. He straightens, movements sluggish but unhindered, and Fox turns to face him. There’s a nasty scowl on her face, expression pinched in rage as she’s forced to take a few steps back, her earth and metal options immediately diminished.

The wood creaks under Aigo’s boots as he slowly approaches the girl. She looks like she might be his age, if a few years older. Early to mid twenties, he guesses, but her eyes are different. He wouldn’t even say her eyes looked older, they hardly even looked human. The fury that was bundled up in them didn’t feel possible for one person to contain.

“There’s nowhere else to go,” Aigo says, but he doesn’t rush her. She wasn’t defenseless and the last time he’d tried to rush her, fists blazing, she’d hurled him into a car. He’d rather not add boat to that list.

Fox’s eyes flick back and forth, assessing that she is truly trapped, yet she still continues to back up down one of the docks. The boats rock with the waves, filling the air with ominous clunking and rattling, water sloshing against the hulls.

Aigo narrows his eyes as he walks after Fox, his hands raised to defend himself if she lashes out with her whips. Her weird, liquid metal things are gone from her gloved hands, used up in throwing off Master Mingmei and then slowing down Aigo.

She’s limited. Aigo refuses to believe she’s defenseless. A cornered animal is always worse, after all.

“Look, just stand down now, it will make things easier for both of us,” Aigo continues, still inching down the dock. The wood creaks and groans and Fox sneers at him.

“Naive and arrogant at the same time,” Fox growls, finally coming to a stop at the end of the dock. Aigo shifts closer and also stops, feet steady and hands still up. “That’s a dangerous combination,” the hiss is all the warning gets before a whip of metal snaps out, cracking beside Aigo’s head as he ducks and retaliates with a stream of fire.

Except no fire comes. He tightens his muscles, ready to strike, zeroes in on his target, then freezes.

Because Fox’s hands are above her head, wrists loose, and all around her seawater has risen at her command. The wall of water hovers, holding still just as its master does, and Aigo can’t move. Can’t attack. Can’t do anything. Because… Because…

“You’re… you’re the  _ Dark Avatar _ …” he whispers and Fox’s eyes only narrow further.

“Leave my people alone,” is her final response before she pushes her palms forward, the water surging around her and pummeling into Aigo. The dock shatters with the attack and Aigo is thrown back, everything going muffled as he falls into the bay, water all around. He scrambles to right himself, not sure which way is up, then claws his way up to the surface.

He gasps as his head breaches the water, coughing the salty taste out of his mouth and sucking in air. The water churns from the attack, remnants of the wooden dock floating everywhere, and Aigo tries to wipe the wet hair out of his face so he can see.

Further out on the bay, far past any docks, a figure stands on the surface of the water, staring back at him. Fox’s braid blows in the wind and for one, single moment their eyes meet. Cold silver and frightened green.

Then Fox turns, spinning on a board of ice she’d formed, and pushes herself forward over the water, leaving Aigo alone with his aching body and broken mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the first chapter was to y'all's liking! Comments help a bunch!
> 
> Again, if anyone can drop by the Twin Souls Discord server to help me out with cultural research, please visit [here.](https://discord.gg/vBqpy5ZUyM)
> 
> \----
> 
> Character Names:  
> Aigo: "love oneself"  
> Qiu: "autumn"  
> Siqiniq: "sun"  
> Yun: "cloud"  
> Asha: "wisdom, desire, hope"
> 
> \----
> 
> Aesthetic Music: [Journey - Don't Stop Believin'](https:%22//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs%22)


	2. One Step Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With so many conflicts within Avatar Aigo's heart and mind, he is urged by an unexpected ally to journey out and find answers on his own.
> 
> Meanwhile, Dark Avatar Veda readies herself for battle, but instead stumbles upon an unexpected presence in an old friend's home.

Aigo doesn’t fully remember returning to the White Lotus HQ. He’d stumbled through alleys and side roads, staring and vacant and rattled. He remembers Bento hurrying to greet him at some point, the calming presence of the salamander cat helping ground Aigo for a short while. He’d climbed onto her back, for a moment aware of how his body ached, and she’d hurried off.

And then he’d faded again, conscious but not present, the image of the Breeze with the red arrow tattoos hovering in his vision, clad in metal but surrounded by water, eyes colder than he’d ever seen.

The Dark Avatar…

This… was bad. Years and years before Aigo’s birth the Dark Avatar had resurfaced as a middle-aged, psychotic man named Xinsui, claiming both earth- and waterbending. The story Aigo had heard was that Xinsui’d attacked Avatar Korra, revealing that the dark cycle had not been halted with the demise of Unalaq. They’d battled in the streets of Ba Sing Se and, due to the Dark Avatar’s indifference to the innocent lives around them, Korra had been forced to take his life.

Beyond that… No one knew where the new Dark Avatar had appeared. Clearly they followed the cycle of the elements, yet Aigo had never heard of a Fire Nation Dark Avatar, and he had the distinct feeling this wasn’t them.

This Dark Avatar… Fox or whatever her name might be… she had to be a Breeze. She had to be born an airbender. As insensitive as her tattoos might be, they likely defended that fact. Plus, she seemed young, around Aigo’s age. The third Dark Avatar would have been much older than Aigo by this point.

So… so, what was going on? How had this happened? What had been missed?

How could two whole incarnations of the literal embodiment of darkness and chaos have gone under the radar for so long?

And clearly they were just as dangerous as Aigo had been told. Unalaq had strived to enter the world into an era of darkness, Xinsui had gone insane and felt no mercy nor empathy to the innocents he demolished, spirits knew what the Fire Nation Dark Avatar had done without notice, and Fox… Fox seemed to be leading a cult of mask-wearing psychos bent on disrupting order and doing as they pleased.

_ “They put a bomb on the bottom of the truck!” _

Aigo flinches and shakes his head at the memory of Asha’s terrified screaming. He tries to block out the image of the bound Breezes, young and frightened, children crying but silenced.

No. No, he had to be missing something. He didn’t have all the pieces and he wouldn’t jump to conclusions. He owed the White Lotus that. He owed them a lot more than that.

Maybe it was the police? They could be corrupt, but Aigo isn’t certain what their drive would be. Maybe those mask-people had planted it to make the White Lotus look bad? But they couldn’t have known Aigo would be there and Fox had been quick to get rid of it. Maybe it was an enemy gang? Gangs were common in Breeze neighborhoods, so maybe there was a turf war going on Aigo hadn’t heard about.

See? Plenty of possible explanations. Aigo just… needed to fill in the gaps. He just needed to talk to the White Lotus. His family. It would all make sense soon.

Aigo ignores the crushing feeling in his chest and clicks for Bento to pick up the pace.

[][][][]

“Of all the irresponsible, foolish, arrogant actions for you to make!”

Aigo flinches, head ducked low as he stares at the tiled floor of the White Lotus Headquarter’s lobby. Beside him Bento sits, mimicking her master, her head lowered and ears flattened.

The White Lotus members hadn’t been at the precinct when Aigo had gone by so he had headed straight for the HQ and the second he’d come in…

Masters Siqiniq, Mingmei, and Yun had been waiting there, surrounded by plenty of other agents nursing their wounded bodies and pride. They’d all turned when Aigo and Bento had returned and Aigo had felt the chill settle over his bones.

Master Mingmei had gone at him first, berating and criticizing him for his actions, but that was almost how she exclusively communicated so he had been able to handle it. What had broken him, however, was Yun’s quiet stare and Siqiniq’s cold reprimands.

“You were given your duties, and you abandoned them. You were told what was needed of you, and you refused. What could have possibly been going through your head?” Siqiniq demands, his even voice so much worse than Master Mingmei’s yelling.

“I… I figured--” Mingmei scoffs but Aigo continues on, “I figured President Chai and I could talk at any time. You were doing something important, though, and I…” Aigo tilts his head slightly sideways, still not looking up at his masters.

“Political standing  _ is _ important, especially for the Avatar, you should know this,” Siqiniq says a tinge of disbelief in his voice. Like he can’t understand how Aigo would come up with such a stupid plan. “We have kept your presence in the press limited so you might focus on your training, but high ranking authorities must be dealt with where public intrigue can be ignored.”

“I know…” Aigo mumbles, dejected and feeling far younger than he really is. “But I wanted to help…”

“Your help was not needed,” Siqiniq says and Aigo flinches again, stomach dropping. He looks up just enough, catching Qiu’s gaze from the sidelines, begging for some kind of help with his eyes. Qiu, however, only stares back before shaking his head and looking away.

Aigo wants to hurl, and he thinks the only thing stopping him is the lump forming in his throat.

There is tense, crippling silence for a long moment after that before Yun steps forward, asking calmly, “You chased after the attackers. Did anything happen?”

“Oh… uh, right… the mask people,” Aigo swallows and tries to calm his heart rate with steady, deep breaths. Hoping to stall for a moment, and also honestly curious, he asks, “Who were they?”

“The Blue Lotus,” Master Mingmei snaps, arms crossed tight over her chest. She’s a wiry woman but anyone could see the power packed inside her body like a tightly curled spring. “A gang of arrogant criminals built to mock our own, esteemed organization. They disrupt our charities and duties any chance they can and spread false rumors to degrade our reputation.”

Aigo’s brows furrow slightly, confused for a few reasons. Criminals made sense, he could get behind that, but this “Blue Lotus” had been fighting to retrieve the prisoners. Fox had called them their loved ones and friends. That didn’t sound like it was meant for a direct attack on the White Lotus. Fox had said Aigo didn’t know what was going on, that the Breezes were “her people.” That… didn’t sound like a gang of mindless hooligans aiming to cause trouble for the local, highest authority.

But Fox was the Dark Avatar. What could Aigo trust out of her?

“Why didn’t you tell me about them?” Aigo asks instead of all the other questions rolling around in his head. “I’m the Avatar, I’m supposed to help. You’ve told me everything else I’ve needed--”

“You have been told what you have needed to hear,” Siqiniq says, voice biting a bit more than usual. “You are not ready to know everything. We have helped guide you through your training and we know when it is best for you to know more.”

Aigo stares at Siqiniq now, mouth parted and brows pinched upward, the pain from the words like a physical blow. His breathing exercises are forgotten as air catches in his chest. The world seems to rattle around him as his head ducks, trying to focus on the regular designs of the white and navy tiles.

There is a hand between his shoulder blades that forces him to take an abrupt breath. It’s steady and thin and Aigo half-hears Yun speaking from beside him, “It’s been a hectic evening. Perhaps we can address our concerns after some much-needed rest.” There’s a grudging murmur of assent before Aigo is being maneuvered out of the lobby and back towards his room.

“Breathe, Avatar Aigo,” Yun keeps saying, voice gentle and soothing after the scorching flames of Siqiniq and Master Mingmei. Bento rumbles near Aigo’s right side, sounding displeased, and he manages to lay a hand on her head. She presses up against his palm and a little piece of Aigo settles.

The large door to Aigo’s room opens and closes and the Avatar is urged to sit at the foot of his bed. Bento crawls onto the bed behind him, curling up close to his back and then laying her neck around Aigo’s side until her head can rest in his lap. She purrs, a gentle, reassuring roll of vibrations that Aigo feels in his bones. He uses both hands to scratch behind the salamander cat’s fluffy ears and run over her wide, smooth snout.

It takes a few moments, but when Aigo finds himself grounded he realizes his face has grown wet with tears. He sniffs then scrubs at his face with his jacket sleeve, trying to banish the evidence of his meltdown, but that thought is dashed when he looks up. Yun has pulled the chair out from Aigo’s desk and turned it so he can sit and face the Avatar, patiently waiting for Bento to work her magic and calm the young man.

“Are you feeling better?” Yun asks, voice as gentle and kind as it ever is. Aigo sniffs again and looks down.

“I’m sorry. That was… really embarrassing,” he mumbles.

“You have not answered my question,” Yun says and Aigo flinches. It isn’t a reprimand, but he feels fragile and small anyway. “Do you feel better now?”

Aigo swallows, forcing away the lump in his throat, and bobs his head. “A little.”

“Good,” Yun nods, then he looks towards the door. It’s a big door, fashioned to allow Bento slightly easier access. “They should not have been so harsh with you. That was uncalled for.”

“What are you talking about?” Aigo questions, glancing to Yun before looking away again. “I’m the one who disobeyed orders… I abandoned my duties. They have every right to be upset with me. Aren’t you upset?”

Yun is silent for a moment and Aigo thinks that’s answer enough, his whole body curling towards Bento’s head. Of all the people to disappoint he’d managed to disappoint the most mild mannered, kindest man he knew in the White Lotus.

But then Yun says, “I am not pleased you ran into danger without backup, but I do not blame nor vilify you. You are not a White Lotus agent, you are the Avatar, and how you see fit to serve your duties is not up to anyone else. It is not you who is to blame for leaving you so inexperienced in matters of the world.”

At this Aigo sits up straight, his face pinching in confusion. “What? I know about the world! I’ve travelled all over it!”

“Under the strict order of the White Lotus,” Yun says, looking at the Avatar with a patient expression. It has Aigo stuttering, struggling to understand what Yun is attempting to get at.

“So? That’s what they were supposed to do. Avatar Korra made them promise to let me see the world, and they have! They found me my trainers and helped me fight bad guys! What’s so wrong with that?”

“Avatar Korra actually stated not to lock you up in one location as they had with her,” Yun corrects and Aigo’s brows furrow.

“Same difference…”

“Is it? Or is it broad enough to be twisted and manipulated for the desires of selfish men?” Yun waits a moment to let that sink in, the Avatar feeling abruptly uneasy and like he was losing his footing. He swallows, mouth going dry, unable to look away from Yun’s steady, grey gaze. His eyes aren’t silver like Fox’s, but they remind Aigo of the Dark Avatar. Airbender eyes.

“Avatar Aigo, tell me. How much of this world do you truly believe you’ve seen? And how much - after hearing what Masters Siqiniq and Mingmei have had to say tonight - do you believe was carefully tailored and controlled?”

Aigo… can’t answer him. The panic he’d felt before had subsided, but now a new kind was beginning to build up inside him. This panic felt cold, stiffening his insides until his usually twitchy fingers went still. His gaze lowered to stare where the wall meets the ground, unfocused.

No… no, that’s… they’d always protected Aigo, that was their duty to the Avatar. They’d trained him, raised him, played with him, taught him. They’d been everything for him! They’d encouraged him to be better and stronger and wiser. They’d stood by him every, single step of the way. Qiu was his friend, Siqiniq was like a father, how…

How could any of that be planned?  _ Fake? _ There was no way. No, because then… everything Aigo knew, everyone he ever trusted, was a lie.

No.  _ No _ . He was overreacting. He was hurt and upset and blowing things out of proportions. Perhaps they had simply made a mistake, they’d done it before. They’d failed to inform Aigo properly of vital information. That didn’t mean they were controlling Aigo’s life.

It just meant they saw him as unfit. Unready. A child, undeserving.

Well, that didn’t help his mood…

“Why… why tell me these things?” Aigo questions, voice small, and looks up at Yun. The Nomad is still sitting, calm and patient.

Yun smiles a serene smile, but it feels a little sad, too. “Some knowledge we cannot accept until we are ready. Tell me… What happened after we were separated tonight?”

Blue mask. Silver claws. Water and earth and airbender eyes.

“I… chased down the fox-masked one…” Aigo mumbles, glancing up at Yun then glancing away a few times. He’s suddenly uncertain how to say this. The White Lotus should know he’d seen the Dark Avatar. It was their duty to stop them.

Bound children. A bomb.  _ “Leave my people alone.” _

Aigo doesn’t know what to do.

“Fox is said to be the leader of the Blue Lotus, yet she has never claimed as such,” Yun explains when Aigo pauses, gently offering information while encouraging the Avatar forward.

“We, uh… we fought. She’s really skilled,” he says, voice shaking, and Yun hums in agreement. “She… she, uh…” But he can’t finish. He can’t bring himself to say that she’d waterbent. Can’t say that she had red Air Nomad tattoos. Can’t say that she’s the Dark Avatar, his natural enemy.

Yun waits, but when Aigo putters out he smiles, nodding. “It sounds as if she has caught your attention, young Avatar,” he says, voice light, and Aigo narrows his eyes suspiciously.

“You know I don’t like women like that,” he says slowly, but that only manages to get Yun properly laughing.

“That is not what I meant,” the Air Nomad chuckles, covering his mouth with a hand to hide his grin. Aigo can’t help but pout. “What I mean… The Avatar can sense things that no one else can. You have reached a point of confusion in your life and you must seek answers. These answers, however, cannot be found in this place, as this is where the source of your inner contention lies.”

“Are… Are you suggesting I find Fox and the Blue Lotus… to  _ speak _ with them?!” Aigo squawks, leaning back as his green eyes go wide. Bento grumbles unhappily at the abrupt motion, raising her head from his lap and hopping down to her own mattress on the ground. “But… but they’re the enemy!”

“Are they?” Yun hums, sounding curious but smiling anyway.

Aigo blinks owlishly at him, then flaps his hands around for emphasis. “They attacked us!”

“And what was their reason?” the airbender retorts and Aigo snaps his mouth shut. He really doesn’t want to think about those Breeze’s locked in the back of that truck…

When he doesn’t answer that seems to be enough for Yun. The Air Nomad hums, nodding his head, and stands. His robes flow with every motion as he steps forward to lay a hand on Aigo’s shoulder. It feels grounding. “Whatever choice you decide to make… I believe you will do what is right,” he says, looking down at Aigo with his gentle smile. 

Aigo stares right back up at him, feeling vulnerable and shaky. He kind of wants to cry again.

For a while nothing is said, and then Yun is backing away and heading for the door, his piece said, but just as he reaches the door Aigo finds his voice.

“Why did you join the White Lotus if… if you have these opinions about it?” he asks and Yun pauses, back to Aigo.

Then, after a few beats, he looks back over his shoulder, a distant look in his eyes. “I had someone I needed to protect.”

Aigo swallows but nods, able to recognize that this is a personal matter and not pushing it. He still has one more thing he has to ask, though.

“The bomb…” he whispers and Yun turns back to look at him fully. “Did you know about it?”

Yun’s expression darkens and he looks straight at the Avatar as he swears, “I was never informed of any bomb on that truck. If I had I would have halted the entire operation.” He pauses, glances away, and mumbles, “Perhaps that is why I was not told.”

With that the Air Nomad bids Aigo good night before slipping out of the room, leaving the young man alone with his spiralling thoughts and a decision he isn’t sure how he can make.

~~~~

The apartment Veda tumbles into is tiny, beat up, and cold. The walls are covered in cheap wallpaper that curls at the ends and the wooden floors creak with every step. The entrance opens right into a tiny living space with a kitchenette on the left side. Three doors line the right wall, first to the bathroom, then a linen closet, and finally to the bedroom.

There’s a tiny television in the living space with crooked antennas on top, a coffee table sitting in front of it covered in papers and scrolls, and then a couch that was once lavender, covered in blankets.

Veda wants nothing more than to sink down into the couch and turn her body and mind off, but she’s too pumped full of adrenaline and mounting anxiety. She paces around the tiny space, arms crossed while one hand holds her chin in thought. As she passes by the television, for just a moment, she pauses, spotting her reflection.

Dark skin, silver eyes, black hair, and a bright red arrow.

She snarls then quickly undoes the braid her hair has been in, releasing the long, messy mane, then scrubs a hand through her bangs to cover up the tattoos.

She goes back to pacing.

“Soooo…” The voice comes from the entryway but Veda doesn’t stop moving, only glancing up momentarily as a familiar figure shuts the door behind her, a paper bag of groceries in one hand. From her hip dangles a blue tiger mask.

Ila, Veda’s most trusted friend and often considered second-in-command of the Blue Lotus, is a tall woman of strong build. Her eyes are moss green, her skin caramel tan but covered in uneven, pale, vitiligo splotches, and her hair is straight, medium-length, and bleached white.

“You got spotted,” Ila says conversationally, fingers of her free hand toying with the edge of the paper bag.

“Did you go grocery shopping dressed like that?” Veda questions, snippy, rather than address the elephant in the room.

It manages to distract Ila, her hand dropping to her hip, glancing down at her field outfit before she huffs and pouts. “Just the corner store down the street,  _ where they know me _ . I ain’t got no secrets with Old Man Bai!”

“You may regret that, now,” Veda mumbles and Ila’s arm flops down, frowning at her friend.

“Why are you so freaked out? You can go all stealthy like the best of ‘em! Tricky like a fox, yeah?” Ila offers, then reaches into her bag to pull out a thin box with a picture of a lady on it, flowy red hair on display. “I got this for me, but I can dye your hair, too, if you’re so worried. Extra protection! Plus, you’d look rad as a redh--”

“You’re not touching my hair,” Veda immediately says, stopping her pacing just long enough to point a warning finger at Ila. The other girl huffs and sticks her tongue out at the Dark Avatar in retaliation. “And that’s not what’s worrying me.”

Ila purses her lips as she frowns, looking downwards and humming, then walks over to the coffee table. There is no kitchen table for her to use. She sets down the bag then reaches back in to pull out her other goodies. She sets down a large tupperware container on the table and, when she pops off the lip, tantalizing steam rolls out. “Alright, well, Old Man Bai gave me some of his wife’s gobi manchurian, so sit down and eat. You’ll starve standing up with all that panicking you’re doing!”

“Not panicking,” Veda mumbles, but still plops down on the couch beside her friend. She takes the wooden chopsticks offered to her and splits them. She smirks at Ila when her own chopsticks split uneven.

“Okay, so, the way I see it… Nothing’s really changed, right? The White Lotus has been huntin’ a Breeze Dark Avatar for years, that’s why they’re always roundin’ us up without warning,” Ila begins, picking pieces of fried cauliflower from the spicy gravy. She doesn’t even attempt to be delicate as she speaks with her mouth full. “Them spotting you now just reaffirms you’re around, sure, but does it actually matter?”

“Perhaps, except now they know the Dark Avatar is associated with the Blue Lotus,” Veda says with fake nonchalance, munching at her own food after. She can feel Ila’s startled gaze against the side of her head in the following silence.

“Oh…” Ila mumbles, looking down at the coffee table.

“Yes.  _ Oh _ ,” Veda hums, growing more agitated as she speaks. “Now it will be too simple for the White Lotus to make the Blue Lotus out to be a villainous, corrupt organization. Doesn’t matter how much we’ve helped people. The moment we’re outed for harboring the Dark Avatar… They’ll call for our executions.”

“Sometimes I forget the world thinks you’re the spawn of all things dark and evil,” Ila comments, already back to eating, and Veda side-eyes her.

“Thanks, Ila…” she drawls sarcastically and Ila waves her chopsticks at her.

“It’s what I’m here for.”

Veda shakes her head and looks back down at the coffee table, mind distant. Like it often does, her thoughts turn to her people. Breezes. Airbenders who already had a culture to be proud of, who didn’t want to leave and become Nomads because that wasn’t who they were. Airbenders who wanted to live their lives, proud of their nationalities, proud of who they were.

Airbenders who, once the Air Nomads took a more positive, helpful position in the world, quickly became “those other ones.” Airbenders who were looked down on for refusing to help the world with the Air Nomads, who were villainized for being selfish and arrogant. Airbenders who quickly became the perfect scapegoats for politicians, driving them into poverty and ghettos so the larger middle class felt powerful and vindicated, but still played as puppets for the rich.

And once Veda, the dread Dark Avatar, was born as one of them their situation had only gotten worse.

The Blue Lotus was meant to help Breezes, protecting them from authorities. Protecting them from politicians. Protecting them from the White Lotus. She and Ila had formed the Blue Lotus because no one else seemed willing to stand up for the “little people.”

“If they release anything… It won’t just hurt the Blue Lotus,” Veda whispers, food forgotten. Ila grunts in question around her own mouthful. “The Blue Lotus might lose some contacts… but we’ll survive. We’re strong and well organized. The real people who get hurt…” The chopsticks in Veda’s fist suddenly snap, her grip on them having tightened in her mounting distress.

Ila glances at her friend’s clenched fist, then back at her face. “It’s Breezes who suffer,” she finishes quietly, setting down her own chopsticks.

“Anyone we protect, any lower class, innocent citizen who sides with us, is going to be in danger,” Veda cringes, head falling lower, and she pushes her palm into her brow. It was like a cloud was overtaking her mind, filling it with every possible wrong she’d committed to lead to this point.

She claimed no leadership, she claimed no power above anyone, yet it was her actions that were bringing about this outcome. Her hope to help her people, to free them of this crippling existence, would lead to their further demise.

Was she no better than that incompetent, bumbling Avatar? The one who had blindly acted without question and through his complacency had abandoned the people who needed him most?

Or was this bound to happen? She harbored the Great Spirit of Chaos within her. Chaos and death followed her wherever she went. Had she invited this obliteration upon her own people by returning to them?

The hand on her shoulder doesn’t stop the spiralling, choking feeling, but it does yank Veda’s consciousness back to the present. She turns to Ila, expression carefully forced into neutrality, but the lavabender is giving her a knowing look.

“Look… we’ll set up patrols as soon as we can,” Ila says, “We’ll prep safe houses and refuges in case someone decides to attack homes and buildings. Some of the local gangs might wanna back us up too, if we approach them right.”

Veda takes in a breath, bracing herself and finding her voice again. “I’ll leave the gangs to you. You’re more of a people person,” she decides with no difficulty. Veda knew how to negotiate and fight. She knew how to deal with the people she cared for. She did  _ not _ know how to make people like her… 

“Deal,” Ila grins, removing her hand to go back to eating. Before she stuffs another bite into her mouth, however, she tacks on conversationally, “And, uh, maybe we should leave for a bit afterwards. Just a thought.”

Veda stills, brows furrowing in confusion as she twists her whole body to face Ila, one elbow back to lean against the arm of the couch. Ila, for her part, does a good job ignoring the stare the Dark Avatar is drilling into her head.

“Well… that’s the nicest ‘get outta town’ I’ve ever heard,” Veda drawls sarcastically and her friend snorts around her food.

“Hey, I did say ‘we,’ didn’t I?” Ila cackles but Veda isn’t appeased.

“What are you suggesting, Ila?” she questions, eyes narrowing. “I can’t just… leave Republic City.”

“Sure ya can! We’ll grab Fujin and go on an adventure!” Ila waves her chopsticks dismissively, but Veda’s not having any of it.

“The Blue Lotus--”

“The Blue Lotus has been growing for the last ten years. It can stand on its own for a while!” Ila cuts her off. She offers the last few cauliflower chunks to her friend in the tupperware but Veda shakes her head. Ila shrugs and gobbles down the last of them.

“Perhaps. But why would I want to? The White Lotus knows I’m definitely here now and is bound to start bringing in more and more agents,” Veda argues and Ila leans back on the couch, patting her stomach.

“Exactly!” the lavabender says, tossing the chopsticks into the empty tupperware container. “They’re looking for you around Republic City. So… you pop up around a few White Lotus hotspots, get sighted, and disappear! It’ll draw them back out of Republic City once they realize you’ve gotten away.”

That gives Veda pause, a hand coming up to hold her chin in thought. That wasn’t a bad idea. The White Lotus would be dreadful - or, well, moreso - while they believed Veda was in Republic City. She needed them scattered and weakened again…

“I suppose you have a point,” she accepts.

“Great! We’ll leave - yes, I’m going too, shut up - after preparations are made!” Ila grins, clapping her hands loud. “We can head for the Earth Kingdom, run around the Fire Nation, findyouafirebendingmasterwhilewe’rethere, chill at the poles--”

“Uh, what was that last bit?”

“Chill at the poles?”

“Before that.”

“Run around the Fire Nation?”

“Ila…” Veda narrows her eyes in warning and Ila throws her hands up in defeat.

“Fine, whatever! I just think, while we have the chance, we should find you a proper firebending master, is all!”

There is a long, heavy stretch of silence that Ila doesn’t appear affected by at all. Veda’s eyes have thinned dangerously and her fists tighten. “A firebending master.”

“When would be a better chance to nab you one?” Ila defends, pouting, reaching forward to pick up her box of hair dye, rolling it between her hands to give herself something to do.

“There are plenty of firebenders here in the ghetto,” Veda argues, shaking her head.

“None that have managed to help you, though,” Ila sing-songs, but then she’s sobering. Her expression turns serious, an occurrence so rare it makes Veda go still. “You’ve got all the other elements but fire, and nobody in Republic City has been able to help you. You may not be  _ the _ Avatar, but you’re still  _ an _ Avatar, and you should learn all four elements!”

“How do we even know I’m capable of firebending. We’ve never found evidence of a firebending Dark Avatar for the cycle to even  _ pick up _ firebending and pass it on to me. Maybe it skipped the last one,” Veda argues, but she already knows all the flaws in her logic.

And so does Ila, pointing the box of hair dye at Veda. “That’d leave a fifteen year gap between your birth and fuckface Xinsui’s death.”

Veda pauses. “Vaatu’s a picky Avatar spirit?”

“Didn’t you tell me you accidentally firebent when you were really little? When you found out you were the Dark Avatar?”

Veda purses her lips, shoulders sagging, and she shoots Ila a displeased glare. Ila grins back at her.

“Look, we’ve never exactly had a chance to find you someone who could help. Now we can. You owe it to yourself to try.” Ila continues, still serious but a bit more gentle now.

Veda straightens, crossing her arms and turning her body sideways to Ila so she can glare at the peeling wallpaper. She is absolutely not moping.

She doesn’t know why fire was such an issue for her. She knew the motions thanks to Breeze and Blue Lotus firebenders, she had the attitude for it according to everyone, and, like Ila said, she’d done it before. Albeit, it had been under severe duress…

_ “What do Breezes have to cry about anyway?!” _

_ A rock, a cry, panicangerfury, protect protect protect. _

_ Heat in her palm,  _ **_make them hurt_ ** _ , screaming. _

_ “You’re the…” _

_ “Beti, RUN!” _

Veda takes a deep, shuddering breath, shaking her head to rid herself of the images. The weary feeling in her bones that had been building since she’d gotten away from the Avatar was catching up to her and the dark cloud from moments before was forcing itself forward again, stronger than ever.

“Guess I haven’t tried talking to a dragon, yet,” Veda mumbles and Ila lets out a bark of laughter.

“That’s the spirit!” the lavabender laughs, then shakes the box of hair dye right in Veda’s face before hopping off of the couch. “Now, you wanna help your best buddy out with dying her hair?”

Veda groans, letting her head flop back against the couch to stare at the ceiling like it might hold all the answers. She shakes her head in slight disbelief…

“Yeah...” she huffs shortly, moving to follow Ila as she rushes for the bathroom.

[][][][]

“This is stupid this is stupid this is stupid this is stupid,” Aigo can’t help but chant to himself as he walks along. Well, Bento walks along and Aigo rides, but the point remains.

The day after Aigo had met the Dark Avatar had been a rough one. Many more masters of the White Lotus have approached him, reprimanding him and trying to explain, in their own words and opinions, why his actions the previous night were unacceptable. No one had yelled, no one had been unnecessarily cruel… And Aigo had hated every moment of it.

He’d been “grounded” by Siqiniq, meaning he could only leave the HQ with White Lotus guards, and Qiu was nowhere to be found.

Aigo had felt sick. He’d tried to train in the HQ’s training room, but he still ached from the battle and all his movements felt sluggish and disjointed. He’d eaten in the cafeteria, surrounded by people, but completely alone and reserved. He’d brought Bento out to the garden to let her cool in the pond, but his distress had made her antsy and they’d been chased off when she ate an eel koi.

The day had been a mess and he’d gone to his room to hide.

No one had come to speak to him, no one had bothered him, no one had needed anything from him…

They likely thought he needed to cool down and were giving him his space, but he’d never felt colder.

The day after… it had been the same. He’d stayed in his room and no one had bothered him. He slipped out to attempt to go back to living normally, but something had clearly changed. He just wasn’t sure where the change might lay.

Master Yun’s conversation kept popping into his mind, unannounced, and Aigo had felt hollow.

On the third day he’d made up his mind.

Sneaking out of the White Lotus’s HQ shouldn’t be as easy as he finds it, but they likely expect him to keep moping for a while longer. He’s the well-behaved Avatar who is foolish but has good intentions. At least in their eyes.

_ “Their perfect, pet Avatar,” _ Fox had called him.

Fox.

The Dark Avatar.

Aigo swallows as he steers Bento down lesser and lesser familiar streets. The roads had less upkeep, buildings packed so tight he doubts any cars could get through, sunlight blotted out by the tall, close buildings. It feels so much darker in this part of the city, puddles lingering from rains long passed, wind sharp and sudden. When he looks up he sees light - waving clothing lines silhouette against the bleached glare of the sky - but somehow it doesn’t reach him.

It also smells dreadful.

People mill about, no cars in sight, the murmur of conversation halting as they split for the Avatar and his salamander cat. Aigo gets the distinct impression they’re all judging him, staring at him as he moves. They get out of his way, yet it feels like they’re closing in, the walls curling, certain that he’s walked right to his doom.

He’d just wanted to find Fox. He was confused and lost within his own home and he needed answers. Yun had said he wouldn’t find them where he was with the White Lotus, but how could he possibly trust someone like the Dark Avatar to help him?

Well… this was how. By walking right into Breeze - and thus Blue Lotus - territory and praying he spots the woman with the red arrow tattoos and that she doesn’t attack him on sight. After sitting, wallowing, the last few days surrounded by people who had once made him feel safe and confident… he just didn’t have much other choice.

He wishes he could have spoken to Yun again, but he’d gone back to the Ranch.

Aigo is so sucked up in his own self wallowing that he doesn’t notice the group of kids behind him. Bento’s ears, though, abruptly perk up and back, which catches Aigo’s attention. He looks back and just has enough time to duck out of the way of a ball of mud. The mud sails over him, splattering against the ground, and Aigo looks back at the culprits.

It’s just a bunch of kids. A bunch of kids with raggedy or wrong sized clothes. A bunch of kids with fire in their eyes that should not be there at that age. A bunch of kids that look shockingly like Asha.

Aigo shakes off his hesitation and turns Bento so he can address the group.

“What’s the big idea?” he demands, trying for authoritative. He doesn’t think it works because one of the kids, who looks to be the leader of the group, floats another blob of mud above their hand, ready for another attack.

“You’re not welcome here!” one of the kids calls from somewhere in the back and Aigo arches a brow.

“What? Why not? Is the street closed?” he glances around but doesn’t see any signage. Plus there’s still a steady stream of onlookers. Onlookers who aren’t trying to stop any of this.

“You’re not welcome because you’re a bad Avatar!” yells another kid just as the second ball of mud goes flying. Aigo swats this one out of the air as the kids pick up even more from a dirty puddle beside him.

“What are you  _ talking _ about?!” Aigo demands because, kids or not, that last line hurt a little.

“You’re a traitor!” the leader finally speaks, hurling another ball of mud. Then another. Around them the onlookers… actually murmur in agreement and a sinking feeling sets into Aigo’s chest.

“No, no! Wait a second!” he deflects another mud ball and Bento’s tail swats away the second. The salamander cat is eying the surrounding people, lips beginning to pull back for a hiss. “I’m the Avatar! I’m meant to help people! I--”

“Then why haven’t you?!” calls someone behind him and Aigo looks back, eyes wide in mounting terror. There’s so many eyes on him, closing in, caging him.

“I’ve-I’ve helped plenty of people!” Aigo argues, looking around as the people glare at him.

“Only the people who the White Lotus liked!” yells someone else and Aigo tries to find them.

“That isn’t true!”

“You’re supposed to be there for us, too!” comes a voice from another direction.

“I… I can’t get to every, single person! Don’t… don’t be… don’t be greedy!” Aigo’s voice cracks, trying to think of what Siqiniq had said about the Breezes, but a chorus of furious boo’s and screams answer his remark.

“Greedy, he says!”

“We just want to be treated like  _ people! _ ”

“You abandoned us!”

“We didn’t ask for any of this!”

“We deserve protection as much as anyone else!”

Aigo yelps when something wet collides with the back of his right shoulder, flinching at the contact and he curls towards Bento in response.

“You’re the greedy one!”

“Selfish just like the White Lotus!”

“You’re in the pocket of the man!”

“You’ve allowed us to die for being born who we are!”

Aigo can’t catch a breath, his chest heaving. His vision blurs and his fingers grip so tight to the saddle handles they turn white. He tries to remember his breathing exercises but the sounds are too much. They surround him, banging on his ears.

“You’re a traitor!”

“Killer!”

“Monster!”

“Failure!”

Bento twists, swinging her tail in a large ark and snarls and hisses at the crowd. They back up immediately, some people crying out in alarm, others in anger, but there is a momentary lull in their accusations.

A lull just long enough for a new voice to cut through the air. “By the spirits, what do you all think you’re doing?!”

Aigo’s chest shakes as he tries to gather his breath but it still won’t work. His lungs want to work, but his throat can’t seem to pass any air through. The roar of the crowd dulls to a murmur, which is helpful, but Aigo’s ears are still ringing.

“Shame on you all, acting like animals,” the voice continues, seeming closer, and Aigo feels Bento shift her stance below him. Her muscles bunch up for a moment, before releasing. “Go about your days, all of you.”

And then there is a presence on Aigo’s right and a quiet voice saying, “Let’s get you inside, dear. Come, come,” and then Bento was moving and Aigo could only wait and see what was happening.

Abruptly, the sounds of the street dull, the stench of the city fades, and the strange shade-light becomes a cool shadow over his eyes. The air is moist but cool and it manages to flow down his throat far easier than before. He gasps, breath heaving as he sucks up the air, but a gentle hand on his back - soothing, cool, healing - helps pull his breathing back into order until he’s doing it on his own.

His other senses are quick to refocus and he straightens up in the saddle, looking around in confusion.

He’s inside a building made of dark, shiny wood, dangling lights in geometric, glass cases, and greenery covering nearly every surface. Vines inch along pillars and walls and the ceiling, pots hang or sit on any horizontal surface with even more plants, and a few blooms decorate some of them with vibrant yellows, pinks, reds, and white. There is a counter at the far end of the room with small, medicine shelves covering the wall behind it.

“Feeling any better, young man?” Aigo looks down, recognizing the voice as his gentle savior, and finds a short, pudgy woman with dark, tanned skin, hair the color of ink pulled back into a romantic tuck with straight bangs, and warm, seafoam blue eyes. She’s dressed in a navy, sleeveless dress with a white collar and draped over her shoulders is a blue, white, and brown rap sewn in a classically Water Tribe pattern.

“Uh… hello,” Aigo mumbles, surprised by the abruptly pleasant atmosphere, and he glances around again. Natural light dances down from the ceiling and it feels warm and calming. “What…”

“You were suffering from sensory overload, dear. The Breeze ghettos can be a lot for newcomers, but particularly so for newcomers who are not as… welcomed,” the woman explains, her smile a bit more sad now before she’s turning away and walking towards the counter. She stoops down and when she comes back up she sets a wooden bowl down filled with a colorful assortment of candies.

“Have one, dear, it can help those nerves of yours,” she says, motioning to the bowl, then turns, picks up a spray bottle of water, and goes about misting some of the plants around the room.

Aigo slides off Bento’s back, the salamander cat quickly going about sniffing at the many plants near her, and the Avatar walks carefully up to look at all the candies. None of them have a brand name, either sitting on their own or wrapped with basic, clear wrappers, but they’re colorful and shiny and look delicious.

He picks up a glassy ball of hard candy, dyed with purple and lavender colors, and side eyes the woman.

“You’re not some… witch or something, right?” he questions, eyes narrowing suspiciously, and the woman chokes on a small laugh.

“Oh, me? No, not at all!” she assures, her smile wobbling as she clearly tries not to cackle at Aigo and his very legitimate concerns.

“You’re laughing at me…” he huffs, yet still he pops the candy into his mouth. It tastes positively divine.

“No, no, I am not. Ah, you are just not the first to ask me that, is all.”

“You definitely have a witchy aura,” Aigo manages to say around his candy and the woman chuckles again.

“Maybe so,” she agrees, looking back at Aigo with a smile and wink. “My name is Varda. I am the local healer for both humans and spirits around these parts.”

“Spirits?” Aigo’s brows pop up surprised and Varda tilts her head at him before motioning to some of the thicker plantlife around the room.

“Don’t tell me the Avatar can’t recognize spirit vines right under his nose,” she teases and Aigo looks a bit more closer at some of the vines. They’re thick things, closer to roots than vines, and after a few moments of focus he realizes they thrum with an unearthly energy. “The Spirit Wilds and Breeze ghettos are side-by-side, you see, and my store happens to sit right on the boundary.”

Aigo looks over to a door that leads further into the building, then back at Varda.

“So, that leads…”

“To my medical rooms. And beyond that, the Spirit Wilds,” Varda nods and Aigo’s eyes have gone bug-eyed by now.

“So… you must be a waterbender!” he exclaims, amazed.

“I am well versed in both the spiritual and physical healing properties of my waterbending, yes. By no means would I be classified as a fighter, however,” Varda explains with a pleased smile, then turns back to mist a potted plant. She stops, though, when she finds Bento right there, staring at her and her spray bottle with big, pleading eyes. Varda smiles at that, then raises the spray bottle to mist the salamander cat’s skin.

Bento immediately purrs, moving in circles so she can get more of her body damp, and Varda chuckles. “Rare creatures, salamander cats,” she observes, but it’s mostly to herself.

“Wait… if you’re a waterbender,” Aigo says, brows furrowing and he looks down in confusion. “But you’re a Breeze, right? Breeze’s are airbenders! And that kid, too. He was bending mud, so he must be earth or water, too…” He was beginning to get confused. The Blue Lotus had multiple benders on its side, but Aigo hadn’t found that overly suspicious. They were clearly friends of the Breezes, but that didn’t mean they actually were ones themselves. This lady, though, lived in the middle of Breeze territory, didn’t she? She helped heal them. She had to be a Breeze.

“I do apologize for Poppi and his herd of troublemakers. They should have let you be, and all those adults should know better than to join in on such an attack,” Varda shakes her head, rubbing her hand off on her dress before petting Bento’s skin, rubbing in some of the moisture. “But to assume the Breeze community is something so easily defined and packaged is a very dangerous game.”

Aigo flinches, feeling like he was being reprimanded, and Varda looks back at him. She eyes him up before looking away and refocusing on her plants and Bento in turns. “I cannot fathom the misinformation the White Lotus has fed you.” Aigo opens his mouth to disagree but Varda cuts him off, continuing, “I doubt you could fathom it, either, and I doubt you have any intention of listening to the words of a lowly healer like myself.”

“I don’t… I... healer’s aren’t lowly...” Aigo attempts lamely because what else is he supposed to say? He wanted to argue with her, explain how the White Lotus had taken care of him his whole life, but she was being so respectful and kind.

And he’d come here for answers anyway, hadn’t he? He had to know more about the Dark Avatar and the Blue Lotus. He had to know where his unease was stemming from. He had to know what was going on with the Breezes as well as his own mind. How could he help anyone if he wasn’t even sure how to help himself?

And Yun had said to find his answers here.

Varda smiles back at him for a moment and says, “Well, thank you. But my point stands. I can tell you as many truths as I can think of, but you won’t believe me until you are out and experiencing them.” Varda turns back to her work, Bento her new shadow, only topping to swat at dangling leaves and vines.

“That’s not…” Aigo begins to protest, but he doesn’t even know what he’s protesting. He stops, looking away, crunching what remains of the candy in his mouth as a way to keep his fidgeting under control.

“When we grow up a certain way, and learn certain things, it becomes difficult to learn anything that differs. But if we never admit when we are wrong, then we cannot grow,” Varda says and Aigo shakes his head quickly.

“I’m not saying that! I’m wrong! I’m wrong all the time!” he says, and he realizes it's a strange point to argue on, but he would never claim ultimate knowledge and intellect. He isn’t a genius or perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

“Ah, allow me to reword that. We also cannot grow if we never admit to the wrongs of those we have looked up to,” Varda pauses to look back at Aigo, expression serious. “And you must be open to listening as well.”

“I…” Aigo chews on his lip, feeling like an ant under an eye glass. He’d seen so much in such a short time, felt so many deep, awful things, been told so many contradicting stories… How was he even supposed to know what to accept and what to push aside? Though, he supposes… listening would have to be the first step anyway.

“I can… do that…” he mumbles, running his fingers through his hair, and Varda smiles.

“That is all that I ask, then. Now, once I am done here, why don’t I make you some--”

“Varda!”

Aigo stiffens, back turned towards the entryway, just as someone comes charging in. Varda looks over at the newcomer, calm as can be, but Aigo had recognized that voice. He knew who that was.

“I heard about an incident outside and I hurried over. Are you al… right…?” the voice trails off as Aigo slowly turns around, his eyes wide as saucers.

Standing in the doorway, light illuminating her back, is the woman with the red arrow tattoos. There, right in this quaint, little healer’s home, is Fox.

She’s dressed different. She still has on the white, puffy pants tied down with bandages at her ankles, but now she dons red sneakers, fingerless gloves, a well-loved blue hoodie zipped up the middle, and her hair is loose and down, like a mane of messy shadows, with her bangs covering her forehead.

But it’s definitely her. He’d recognize her anywhere, her silver eyes wide at the sight of him, mirrored in their shock.

Then, in unison, they raise a hand to point at each other and yell.

_ “YOU!” _

~~~~

The last few days Veda had begun making preparations to leave. Namely, she’d made sure her people would be safe in her absence. She’d spread the word to keep an eye out for increased White Lotus and police activity and to know where everyone’s designated safe houses or bunkers were located. 

Blue Lotus patrols were increased, resources were stockpiled, and rescue parameters were reviewed.

They’d been lucky so far. No change in activity, but where that made people like Ila relieved, it made Veda’s skin crawl. What were they waiting for? Were they hoping to build up power for a final attack?

And then, while she had been out on a patrol herself, “strolling” through the streets, she’d heard talk about a commotion a few blocks away. Something about an angry crowd, the healer Varda stepping in, and something about a feline dragon. It was bizarre, but Veda hadn’t panicked.

Until she’d run into Poppi and his friends and they’d bragged about attacking the Avatar.

Every alarm in Veda’s head had gone off at that moment and she’d hardly listened to the kids any further before air jumping through the streets. She’d been in panic mode, she could admit that. She didn’t want anyone hurt, but Varda was important to her. Varda had been there for her when no one else had wanted her.

She’d charged into Varda’s Healing Hut, not offering any pleasantries as she’d called out for the waterbender’s safety. That Avatar was here, he had to be hunting Veda down to begin the White Lotus attack. What if they had been watching? What if they somehow knew to go after Varda?

Except… no… nope. No, that’s not what’s happening because  _ THE AVATAR _ is standing right in Varda’s entry room. And Varda… Yep, Varda is unbothered and is, in fact, pampering the Avatar’s overgrown lizard.

_ “YOU!” _ they both yell together because no. No way. This can’t actually be happening. The man who turned his back on Veda’s people, who blindly followed the oppressors of this planet, the idiot who thought children deserved a place tied up in the back of a truck, was standing right there with purple, candy-stained lips like he owned the place!

“Oh, always so good to see a familiar face,” Varda is saying, not allowing the sudden tension in the room stop her from being pleasant, somehow even ignoring the growls coming from the Avatar’s pet. “I was just about to suggest tea. Would you like--”

Veda doesn’t hear the rest of Varda’s offer because she leaps into the air, spinning sideways so she can lash out a kick and send a vertical ark of air straight at the Avatar.

The man yelps, surprised, but manages to dodge out of the way. The air still smacks his shoulder, though, and he flinches. A moment of weakness, all Veda needs, and the moment she lands she keeps herself low. She plants both hands on the floor and pivots, using both legs pressed together to hurl another streak of air at the Avatar’s crouched form.

This one lands something more solid, knocking him back against Varda’s sales counter, making the pots atop rattle.

Varda herself cries out something about stopping, but Veda can’t. Not while there’s a threat on her people’s lives standing right in front of her.

The Avatar grunts, and punches upward from where he’s been knocked to the floor, a bolt of fire springing from his knuckles. Veda weaves out of the way, but the room is tiny and the fire singes her hoodie sleeve. She snarls at that, just as Varda yells, “No fire in here!”

Veda looks back at the front wall to see that the fireball had taken life, glowing as it begins to spread up the wood.

“Shit, uh, s-sorry! I didn’t, uh…” the Avatar begins to frantically apologize, hands flailing, and Veda scowls even deeper. Such a useless Avatar…

There are barrels of water everywhere and Veda wastes no time pulling streams out to splash over the fire before it can get worse. Easy fix, really, and she turns her glare on the Avatar. He’s staring back at her, though, like he’s come to some dreadful realization.

“I was kinda hoping I’d imagined that,” he whispers and, no, actually, he’s staring at the water floating around Veda’s back in a C-shape, not Veda. Somehow, that only makes her angrier.

“I warned you to leave my people alone,” she hisses, twisting her upper body clockwise, pulling the water with her. Aigo’s brows raise before he shifts back into a ready stance. Sparks flicker around his knuckles, having already forgotten the no-fire rule, and Veda’s glare hardens.

This Avatar was ignorant, forgetful, and a danger to her people. She wouldn’t let him--

CAW-RACK!

“OW!” Veda cries out, cheek stinging and she moves one hand to cradle it. She looks over and finds Varda giving her a very displeased glare, her hand pulling back and a vine returning to its place on the wall. “What was that for?!”

The Avatar snorts, quickly covering his mouth, and Veda shoots him a glare. Before she can snap at him or he can keep laughing, Varda bends a vine from closer to the Avatar and smacks him across the back of his head.

“OUCH!” he yelps, jumping, then holding the back of his head as pained tears well up in his eyes. He pouts over at Varda, who sets the vine back before putting her hands on her hips.

“No more of this fighting. Not in my house!” she says, looking between the two like they were some of the local brats acting up. Veda scowls and glances away, forcing to drop her hand from her stinging cheek, while the Avatar keeps pouting and rubbing at his head.

“Sorry, ma’am…” he mumbles and Veda glares at a wall, silent.

“Honestly, I was just about to offer some nice, calming tea, maybe chamomile,” Varda continues, looking between the two, before settling her gaze on Veda. “It seems you must need some as well.”

The Dark Avatar narrows her eyes, turning back to glare at the boy who had abandoned her people and left them to die. “I am not having tea with  _ him _ ,” she says coldly, earning a responding glare from the boy.

“I have a name, you know,” he snaps, fists clenching at his sides.

“I don’t care.”

“Veda,” Varda is quick to reprimand. Not harsh, she doesn’t do harsh, but it’s obvious she is not happy with the younger woman’s actions. It takes everything in Veda not to whine that she’s grown and shouldn’t be babied like this. It wouldn’t really prove her point…

Varda then turns to the Avatar and smiles kindly, patiently, and Veda only scowls deeper. “Go on, dear. Introduce yourself.”

“My name is Avatar Aigo--” Veda scoffs, “a-and… that is Bento, my best friend.”

Veda blinks, brows furrowing, and looks over where “Aigo” was pointing. By Varda’s far side, casually sprawled on the floor, is a massive salamander cat grooming herself. It’s a rather strange-looking creature, but also quite intimidating. Well… if it weren’t just lounging there, uncaring that her master just got attacked.

“Your ‘best friend’ just let you get beat up by the embodiment of darkness and disorder,” Veda drawls, smirking viciously when Aigo pouts, his gaze on his pet.

“She kind of has her own agenda…” he grumbles, before abruptly shaking his head and swinging to face the dark-skinned woman, an accusatory finger jabbed straight at her. “So you admit it! You admit to being the Dark Avatar, source of evil and chaos in the world, my natural enemy!”

Veda scowls deeply at that, taking a threatening step forward that causes the Avatar to flounder and get into a ready stance. “I admit to being the Dark Avatar because it is what I am. Only a fool would deny reality simply because it does not suit them,” she snarls and watches in morbid glee when Aigo flinches, having apparently hit a sore spot. “The rest is none of my business. My purpose has been and forever shall be to protect those who cannot protect themselves. To stop and out the people in power for the destruction and death they have set upon my people. I don’t care what you think of me, I don’t care what opinions you have on what I am, I don’t care if you or the world hates me. The lives of my people are all that matter to me.”

The Avatar’s stance has slackened, face openly shocked as he watches her. He’s got a pretty face, sharp and well-balanced, but somehow he manages to make it look childish. It makes Veda think of some of the kids she’d seen in the Breeze ghetto, who had young faces marred with forced maturity and loss of innocence.

Her chest hurts and she hates the Avatar just a little bit more for it.

“And we might be enemies, but I don’t care about any preordained, light versus dark bullshit. You are my enemy because you stand in the way of my people’s survival and happiness. Otherwise, I couldn’t care less what you did with your life,” Veda finishes with a harsh, dismissive wave of her hand, Aigo leaning back in surprise before he shakes his head.

“But, I’ve never done anything to the Breeze community! How could you possibly think I’m an enemy for that?” he demands, but there’s little heat in his words. His entire body has sagged and he looks beaten down.

“Sometimes, inaction is just as damning as action, dear,” Varda offers from her place watching the two Avatars. Her expression is somber as she looks to Aigo and he looks back. He looks like he’s shaking from where Veda stands and she narrows her eyes at that, suspicion starting to set in.

“Don’t think inaction is your only sin, Avatar,” she snaps, getting Aigo’s attention back. She can feel Varda’s disapproving gaze on her face, but the waterbender says nothing so Veda continues. “Because of you, the White Lotus will destroy even more of the ghetto and even more lives looking for me. Is that why you’re here? Scouting out my location?”

“What? What are you talking about?” Aigo questions, brows pinching in clear confusion, and Veda lets out a frustrated growl.

“You saw me! Now the White Lotus knows I’m here and they’re going to stop at nothing, and no one, to get to me. My people could be eradicated.” Veda feels the air around her beginning to shift, reacting to her mounting anger and distress. She was ready to strike out, damn the consequences, to ensure the Avatar's mission ended right then and there. For her people she would do anything. If turning herself over could assure their safety, she’d do that too, but she knew it wouldn’t. It would just leave them more susceptible. And a world without  _ this _ Avatar would surely be beneficial for the Breezes.

“I didn’t tell them about you, though.”

The air around Veda stills, her whole body freezing up.

What?

Aigo… doesn’t look like he’s lying. He looks sheepish, actually, fingers moving to card through his long ponytail. A nervous habit, maybe? But… no, that doesn’t make sense. If the Avatar hadn’t told the White Lotus about her, then… well, no, he would have had to, wouldn’t he have? But, then, if he hadn’t, why was he here?

Was this why the White Lotus hadn’t shown up on the Breeze’s doorstep recently? Veda and Ila had made sure preparations were ready for an attack, an increase in raids, an abrupt media storm against the Blue Lotus and the Breezes, but nothing had happened. They’d thought it strange, but hope was a fickle thing Veda could not allow herself to indulge in.

But… if they didn’t even know… then that would explain things, wouldn’t it?

“I… I came here… to find you, and your Blue Lotus,” Aigo continues and Veda forces her confusion to the side, eyes narrowing in renewed suspicion.

“Why?” she demands, short and sharp, and Aigo looks away.

“Well, see… Uh… hm…” the Avatar begins to squirm under Veda’s steady, hard gaze. He’s back to fiddling with his hair, looking around at the room in a clear attempt to avoid the Dark Avatar. 

“Spit it out,” Veda snaps, getting fed up with the stalling, and Aigo flinches, looking back at her with wide eyes. She crushes the tiny bubble of guilt that emerges from that.

“I’m just… I’m confused…” he finally whispers, looking down at his feet as if he’s ashamed, and Veda tilts her head in response.

“Confused,” she repeats, not fully believing that, and she crosses her arms over her chest. She thinks the Avatar is past trying to attack, but if he does try something she still has her metal weaponry hidden under her hoodie.

“Well… uh… after that night, with the truck, I started thinking…”

“A first for you, I’m sure,” Veda drawls, which manages to get Aigo to look back up at her. He blinks owlishly, before glaring and pouting. Good. She was getting sick of the moping and hesitating.

“I ended up with a bunch of contradictions and questions and I was told I wouldn’t find what I needed with the White Lotus,” he snaps back at her, earning a single, raised brow from the girl in response. That was curious. Who was telling their dear, beloved Avatar to avoid White Lotus influence? Who had managed to make it through this fool boy’s thick skull to convince him he needed to get away from that awful organization?

Veda would like to send them flowers, if they’d actually managed to get the White Lotus’s biggest weapon away from them. Getting the Avatar away from the White Lotus would be beneficial to everyone.

“So you came to the ghetto,” Veda hums, eying Aigo consideringly. 

“I… came looking for you, actually,” the boy mumbles, glancing sideways, and that has Veda’s expression twisting in surprise. “To… talk to you…”

“Talk…” she mumbles in disbelief, mildly unimpressed, but Aigo doesn’t seem bothered. He shrugs, as if that’s all he’s got, and Veda sighs, laying her hand to her forehead. This… this could not be happening. She wasn’t some Avatar babysitter! She had work to do! Especially now that she knew the White Lotus wasn’t coming to strike her down. Yet.

“Ah, then perhaps now we should have that tea, yes?” Varda abruptly speaks up, clapping her hands. Aigo and Veda look over to her, surprised to remember she’s there, and she smiles serenely at both of them.

The two Avatars glance at each other, expressions of surprise matching, before Aigo grins and shrugs, almost sheepish, and Veda groans in defeat. She didn’t exactly have a good enough argument at this point, anyway… 

[][][][]

The tea is cold and sugary. Sweet sun tea, Varda calls it, a local treat in the Breeze community. It was hard to get decent sunlight in the thin alleys and roads, but the roofs had little protection. So, in the middle of the summer heat, it wasn’t common to find the roofs of apartment buildings covered in clear, glass jugs, filled with tea, cooking it without needing to heat up a kitchen and make the home even more unbearably hot.

After that it was iced and filled with syrups and flavors. Aigo had never had cold tea before, let alone one in a tall, clear glass with flowers decorating the base, but as he watches the two Breeze women happily down their own drinks he finds himself growing curious.

He sips it carefully, like it might be poisonous, and hears the Dark Avatar snort at him. He glares up at her, then moves to take a more confident gulp.

Oh, by the spirits, this was really good!

Sweet and cold and delicious. He takes another, longer drink, and when he lowers his glass down he’s sighing in contentment. Varda smiles happily at him, but Veda looks away, scowling.

They’d moved upstairs to Varda’s living quarters, sitting down on cushions on the floor surrounding a low table. Varda had served the tea from a jug she kept in her fridge - a fridge that looked ancient compared to the ones Aigo saw in most other households - and they’d all fallen into silence. The living space felt cozy, made of the same dark wood as the lower floor, vines and plantlife still everywhere. Water Tribe tapestries hung all over, along with blankets and cushions that looked handmade. There was a severe lack of furniture, however, and Aigo voiced his confusions on that.

Veda scoffs, but is ignored, as Varda smiles a bit more sadly. “Funds are limited, dear. Breezes must decide on what is most important to put their money towards, and what can be sacrificed. My funds go to bettering my medical rooms.”

“With better medical equipment, though, why not charge more for your services? Wouldn’t that make sense for you?” Aigo asks, head tilting in confusion, and now Veda is openly glaring at him.

“I do not charge anyone anything,” Varda replies, both hands folded around her glass of sweet tea. “I tend to Breezes and spirits, young Avatar. What money do you think they have?”

“W-what? But… how do you get your money, then?” Aigo questions, baffled. Varda was offering a service - a much needed service - and had expertise no one else had. Shouldn’t she be charging for things? Wouldn’t she suffer if she didn’t?

“Some fundraisers, but mostly small donations from thankful patients or families when they have the spare cash,” Varda replies, shrugging like it is no big deal, and Aigo bawks at her. “What? Is it not the same for the Avatar? You offer your help because it is the right thing to do, not because you want to be rich.”

“Except he was pampered his whole life. He didn’t  _ need _ compensation from anyone,” Veda growls and Aigo looks to her, his own expression twisting unhappily at her extended animosity.

“Hey, I wasn’t spoiled my whole life! My sister and I were orphans in Ba Sing Se before the White Lotus saved us,” he retorts, but Veda only gives him a bland look.

“So you admit to being spoiled?” she hums with fake cheer, and Aigo falters.

“I… well… maybe a little…” he admits quietly, but then shakes his head, “But my life wasn’t pampered! I’ve been on plenty of missions in my life, fighting bad guys wherever I needed.”

“Are you so sure they were bad guys, or just guys the White Lotus told you were bad?” Veda retorts without missing a beat. Aigo opens his mouth, instinctually ready to call her out, but freezes mid-word. Just a few days ago he would have been quick to deny her suggestion, demand respect for the White Lotus, and tell her that he only ever tried to do what was right.

But after…

_ Bomb. _

_ Bound. _

_ Children. _

_ “They planned to use our care for our friends and loved ones against us!” _

He swallows and pulls back, looking down at his glass with wide eyes.

Were the people he’d fought, the people he’d been so proud to take down, really his enemy? He… he didn’t even know who he’d been attacking half the time. The White Lotus told him what they’d done, told him he was saving tons of people, and that had been all he’d needed. He’d charged in, ready to protect and save and beat up the bad guys.

Was it ego? Was he arrogant? Was he a monster, like all those Breezes outside believed him to be? 

He’d just wanted to help people. That’s all he ever wanted to do.

He didn’t want to hurt or devalue or disrespect anyone. Making people safe and happy made him feel complete. Had he been failing this entire time? Had he been damaging people? Had he been ruining lives? Was the Breeze community really so bad off? Could he have been helping this entire time and never even known it?

His chest burns and he only belatedly realizes he’s hyperventilating. Even when he’s aware of it, however, he can’t get his breath to come out the way he wants it to.

“Oi… Avatar. What’s up with you?” he hears Veda demand through the buzzing in his ears. He can only shake his head in response, grasping at his hair with both hands and ducking his head down. Bento, who had been lounging in a shaded corner, mrrp’s at him in confusion.

“I-I didn’t… I didn’t!” he wheezes, but he isn’t sure what he’s trying to say. There’s pressure on his left shoulder, light but steady, and a voice by his ear. He doesn’t catch what is said. A big nose bumps his back, Bento approaching to try and comfort her master, and Aigo hiccups, tears rolling down his face.

“I promise,” he whines to the blurry figure by his side, “I promise… I didn’t want to hurt anyone… They told me… me… I-I was helping… I thought…” Aigo reaches up to scrub at his face and the hand on his shoulder slides around to the right, arm along his back, in some kind of awkward hug. Their other hand finds its way to his chest, splaying there, pushing in and out in a steady motion.

Like a switch had been flipped, air began funneling in and out of Aigo’s lungs. He gasped, struggling for a moment, but his breaths were deep and long and controlled. After a few beats of consistent breathing, the hand on his chest drops and Aigo coughs. He can breathe just fine, now, but it aches.

Still, it allows Aigo’s mind to clear, the attack ending faster than he’d ever experienced. He looks around, taking stock. Varda has turned away and is back in her kitchenette, giving him privacy, but that has him confused. Someone had just helped him, hadn’t they? Surely it couldn't have been…

Sitting beside him, however, with an arm around his shoulders, is the Dark Avatar. She’s looking away from him, a deep frown on her face, but her grip and her presence is steady.

Laying behind them both, tail curling around them, is Bento.

“Alright, alright, you didn’t want to hurt anybody, we heard you,” Veda grumbles, scowling deeply, but that’s not what has Aigo’s attention.

“Did… did you help my breathing?” he questions, shocked, and finally Veda looks sideways at him.

She hesitates, for a moment, before saying, “It was just airbending. Help urge a more controlled flow of air through your windpipe and into your lungs, as well as out. It doesn’t force you to breathe, but kickstarts your body back into its proper functions,” she explains, then waves her free hand dismissively. “It’s not that complicated.”

“H… how did you even know how to do that?” Aigo asks, unable to fathom how such an amazing skill could be dismissed so easily.

Veda shrugs. “Lots of people I try to help have panic attacks. Kind of expected, considering the hell the world puts us through.”

Aigo falls silent, looking down. Bento’s tail has folded over both his and Veda’s laps and he reaches out to run his hands over the smooth skin. After a few beats, Veda also reaches down to poke the tail.

“Does she shed?” the Dark Avatar questions.

“Uh… her fur, yeah, but she’s amphibian, not reptilian, so she actually eats her shed skin,” Aigo replies with a shrug, the muscles in his body beginning to loosen. There was still a very prominent part of himself that wanted to cry, but after all his freakouts during the day, it felt like his body had finally had enough.

“Huh… cool,” Veda mumbles and Aigo hums in response. They wait a few beats before the Dark Avatar sighs, her arm that had been wrapped around Aigo’s shoulder retracting so she can run her fingers through her hair. Somehow, she manages to do it without disrupting her bangs, keeping her tattoos hidden.

“I don’t like you,” she begins bluntly, “But… yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out like that. That was pretty shitty.”

Aigo blinks at her, finally managing to sit up straight. It makes him taller than her, but that’s only a passing thought. “Thanks… but, I mean, it’s not like you did it on purpose… I didn’t even know that’d set me off…” he pauses a moment to think, looking over just how much he’d been upset over the last few days, and he sags. “A lot of stuff has been getting to me lately.”

“Your world is evolving,” Varda abruptly cuts in, returning to the table with a plate of macarons. She sets them down and then sits on her knees on her own cushion. Her smile is serene as Veda cringes and leans a little further away from Aigo, but Bento’s bulk keeps her pretty close. 

“You have been purposefully sheltered by the White Lotus all your life, and now that you are learning the truths of the world - and your actions - your mind feels as if it is under attack. Your body, thus, responds in kind.”

At Aigo’s hesitant stare, however, Varda’s smile turns sad. “Even now you do not wish to accept the truth,” she sighs, but when Aigo opens his mouth to disagree she holds up a hand. “It’s okay. You’re here, aren’t you? You are already making strides to find the answers to the conflict within you. That is more than can be said for many.”

Veda huffs, glaring at a far wall, but from this angle Aigo can abruptly see her pout. She looks a lot less threatening like that, especially sitting right beside him and surrounded by a purring salamander cat.

“I… I do want answers,” Aigo says carefully, tearing his gaze away from the Dark Avatar to look at Varda. “But your blind hatred of the White Lotus… it can’t be healthy, can it?”

“And what of your blind trust?” Varda asks gently, hands folded on the table.

Aigo flinches, looking down at the table. He swallows, not sure how to even begin to answer, but Varda takes pity on him.

She pushes the plate of macarons closer to him and he takes a pastel blue one while Veda nabs a pink one. “Alas, these things take time. They also take experience, however, thus I feel it prevalent to suggest you take the rest of today to explore the Breeze community with an open mind.”

“What?!” Aigo and Veda both cry in surprise.

“You can’t possibly think I should go back out there! They tried to eat me alive earlier!” Aigo continues frantically, flapping his arms with his concern. His left arm nearly nails Veda in the head, though, and she growls as she grabs his wrist and moves it out of her way.

“Ah, you are very right. The Breeze people, too, must face truth and accept change. The Avatar did not abandon us. He was taken from us.” At the last part Varda turns her steady, blue eyes towards Veda. The airbender stiffens - Aigo can feel it where they sit - but says nothing. “Until then… perhaps a guide of high esteem within our community would be a wise choice.”

The silence that fills the room is deafening, because Varda is still staring at Veda in clear expectation. The Dark Avatar, in turn, stares back at her with huge, silver eyes, her mouth hanging open in shock. Aigo, too, finds himself mildly horrified by what has been suggested… but the look on the girl’s face beside him kind of makes him want to laugh.

“ExCUSE me?!” Veda eventually demands, loud and angry, but Varda seems unbothered.

“Does it not make perfect sense? Young Aigo will be given the opportunity to experience a culture that has been dreadfully misinterpreted to him, without fear of attack, and you can keep an eye on him as he intermingled with our people. I would say that is a win-win, wouldn’t you?” the healer says, smiling like she knows she’s won.

Aigo can’t hold back his own mounting grin as he looks between the two women, Varda staying calm and pleased while Veda simmers more and more. The staredown continues for a few more seconds until, finally, the airbender throws her hands skyward and groans in anger. “Uhg! Fine! Whatever! I’ll babysit the stupid Avatar!”

Aigo covers up his mouth to keep from cackling, not feeling insulted by the “babysitting” part, but then Veda turns her harsh glare on him.

“Don’t look so smug. You’ll be stuck with me for hours, but now you won’t have Varda to play referee for you,” the Dark Avatar snarls in his face and Aigo has the decency to look cowed.

Although… he thinks of the steady hands on his shoulder and his chest, urging him to breathe like normal again, and he doesn’t think he feels as frightened as he would have been only one hour ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone is doing well!! And I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
> 
> Just a reminder, the discord is still [here](https://discord.gg/8qeHyT54Wy) if anyone would be willing to hit me up, or just chat.
> 
> \----
> 
> Character Names:  
> Veda: "knowledge"  
> Ila: "earth" and "speech"  
> Varda: "rose" and "granter of boons"
> 
> \----
> 
> Aesthetic Music: [Micheal Jackson - Beat It](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0)


End file.
